NSW Government Agrees To Ease Path For Small Suppliers To State’s $A42 Billion Spend.
NSW Government Agrees To Ease Path For Small Suppliers – NSW Government has agreed to the 9 recommendations of an NSW procurement inquiry to make the path easier for smaller suppliers to state’s $42 billion annual spend.
NSW Government agencies will now have additional compliance measures and new standards for managing contracts, providing supplier feedback, and disclosing smaller deals. At the same time there will be a review of standard contracts seeking inequitable requirements that exclude smaller suppliers.
In accepting the recommendations, the NSW Government agrees to work to make spending more responsible and more consistently implemented. There will also be more effort directed towards active job creation and supporting domestic and regional industries.
The NSW Procurement Board, which was found to be “not functioning effectively as an oversight body”, will have new measures to uplift agency compliance and a new and robust compliance and enforcement mechanism.
There will be a review of the agency procurement authority accreditation system that the committee feared could be exploited by consultants. Standard contracts will be reviewed and simplified, as will SME-onerous requirements like insurance and accreditations.
NSW Government supported a call to lower the disclosure threshold for contracts to $100,000, and committed to modernising contract management standards and to set minimums for contract monitoring, retention and storage.
NSW Government also committed to ensuring feedback is provided to all parties involved in a competitive tender bid and said it will establish the first-ever NSW government debarment scheme to ban suppliers that engage in misconduct or abuse of trust.
Finally, NSW Government announced an “if-not, why not” rule that will require government buyers to explain why local suppliers do not win significant contracts.
“The inquiry’s findings demonstrate that the reforms we have already put in place have us on the right path, said Minister for Domestic Manufacturing and Government Procurement, Courtney Houssos.
“There’s clearly more work to be done to make sure more of the NSW Government’s $42 billion spend can go to support local jobs and local industries.”
You can learn more about the NSW Government responses to the inquiry here or read more SEN news here.
“NSW Government Agrees To Ease Path For Small Suppliers To State’s $A42 Billion Spend.”
