Annual Report 2004-05

Materiel Reform

Purchasing

Contract Reporting

Defence reports on contracts in several complementary locations.

The Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines require Defence to report certain procurement activities on the Austender website. These include:

• all open business opportunities are to be published on the Government Advertising Website https://www.tenders.gov.au/federal/index.shtml;
• all contracts, including contracts made against a standing offer and agency agreements, of a value of $10,000 or more are to be published at http://www.contracts.gov.au within six weeks of entering into the agreement;
• all standing offers with an estimated liability of $10,000 or more are to be published at http://www.contracts.gov.au within six weeks of entering into the agreement; and
• contract amendments with a value of $10,000 or more.

Contracts and purchase orders valued at $100,000 and over have separate and additional reporting requirements.

• Senate Order 192 on Departmental and Agency Contracts requires reporting on the Interim Defence Contracts Register at http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/id/cic_contracts/cic_contracts.cfm.
• The Buy Australian policy requires reporting on the Buy Australia Website http://www.defence.gov.au/dmo/buying/.

Small to Medium Sized Enterprises

Defence promotes the engagement of small to medium sized enterprises (enterprises employing less than the full time equivalent of 200 persons) wherever possible in all purchasing areas. Defence does this by:

• the Defence Small Business Access facility (introduced in May 2005), which enables small to medium enterprises to obtain information on doing business with Defence and its prime contractors through an internet web portal and a national freecall enquiry line;
• encouraging prime contractors to maximise the use of small to medium enterprises in defence procurements;
• where practical, opening previously restricted business opportunities to public tender;
• identifying opportunities for small to medium enterprises during the development of industry requirements for larger purchases; and
• monitoring procurement methods to ensure small to medium enterprises are not discriminated against.

Australian Industry Involvement

The Australian Industry Involvement Program is the major program through which Defence leverages its procurement activity to foster critical Australian industry capabilities and ensure that industry delivers more cost effective Defence capability. To achieve these twin industry goals, sector strategic plans and derivatives have been developed. These plans are aimed at identifying, obtaining and sustaining strategic Australian industry capabilities required to support the ADF now and into the future.