Contracts

Senate Order on Government Agency Contracts

On 20 June 2001, Australia's Senate agreed to an order which requires each non-corporate Commonwealth entity (NCCE) to publish a list of its contracts which provide for consideration of $100,000 or more on its Internet page.

The order requires that the list of contracts include details of:

• each contract entered into by the Agency which has not been fully performed or which has been entered into in the previous 12 months, and which provides for a consideration to the value of $100,000 or more;
• the contractor, the amount of consideration, the subject matter of each contract, the commencement date of each contract, the duration of the contract, the relevant reporting period and the twelve month period relating to the contract listings;
• whether each such contract contains provisions requiring the parties to maintain confidentiality of any of its provisions, or whether there are any other requirements of confidentiality, and a statement of reasons for confidentiality; and
• an estimate of the cost of complying with this order and a statement of the method used to make the estimate.

In 2014, as part of an inquiry into the operation of the Senate Order, the Committee recommended that NCCEs could satisfy the requirements of the Senate Order as it relates to procurement contracts only by reference to AusTender. From 1 July 2015, reports will be generated by the Department of Finance and published on AusTender. For the purposes of the Senate Order, the Agency’s procurements are available through the Senate Order page located on AusTender.

The Agency’s Accountable Authority has assured that the listed contracts do not contain any inappropriate confidentiality provisions.