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 department 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.
The department's procurement contracts for the purposes of the Senate Order are available through the Senate Order page located on AusTender. The department's Accountable Authority has assured that the listed contracts do not contain any inappropriate confidentiality provisions.
Grant contracts that meet the requirements of the Senate Order are located on the department's Grants Reporting webpage.
The department's contracts are a mix of fixed price and variable price contracts. The latter's values are dependent on the level of demand for the contracted goods or services. In those cases an estimate of the total value of the contract has been made. In many instances contracts are for terms longer than one year. The values quoted are the best estimates that can be made on the information available to the department at the time the list was prepared. The values are subject to change. Relevant factors in determining estimates include expenditure to date, the budget for the contract and an assessment of the likely number of users of the contract for the remainder of the term of the contract. All values in this report (other than those annotated to the contrary) are GST inclusive.
Please note: a request seeking access to any of the following contracts by a member of the public or a Federal Parliamentarian outside of Parliamentary Proceedings will be considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982. You can obtain more information about how to make an FOI request by clicking Freedom of Information.