Defence and the DMO Report on Contracts in Several Complementary Locations
The Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines require Defence and the DMO 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.
- 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/.
During 2005–06, the number of contracts valued at $100,000 or above entered into by the DMO was 3,047 and by Defence was 2,765.
Access by the ANAO to a contractor's premises, records and accounts, is currently provided for in a number of different ways, depending upon the Defence Group concerned. Standard practice in the DMO is to include provisions in contracts permitting the Australian Government Representative to arrange for ANAO access to contractor and major subcontractor premises, records and accounts. This arrangement ensures that Defence is aware of the ANAO's intentions, that effort is not duplicated when Defence already holds the information and that the interests of the contractor are taken into account.
Other Groups with Defence provide for direct ANAO access to contractor premises or include the model ANAO access clauses promulgated by the Department of Finance.