New Procurement Rules for the Commonwealth

New Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPR) were released by the Department of Finance on 20 April 2019. These new CPRs apply for any new procurement from their commencement date.  The CPRs are a set of rules for most Commonwealth procurements.

The changes, in essence, are made to accommodate the Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018 (Cth), international law obligations, and, the introduction of targets for procuring from Small and Medium Enterprises.

In relation to the changes for small and medium enterprises, officials are required to consider:

  1. the benefits of doing business with competitive SMEs;
  2. barriers to entry such as the cost of preparation of submissions that may prevent SMEs from competing;
  3. SME’s capabilities and their commitment to local or regional markets; and
  4. the potential benefits of having a larger, more competitive supplier base.

A target of 10% of procurement from SME’s is introduced for non-corporate Commonwealth entities. Non-corporate Commonwealth entities have a target procuring 35% of contracts by volume with a value of up to $20 million from SMEs.

You can find the rules here.  Griffin Legal can assist government departments and agencies in complying with the CPRs. We can also assist in acting as probity advisors. 

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