ACT Government Procurement Board

Transmittal Certificate

Organisational Overview and Performance

Organisational Overview

The ACT Government Procurement Board (the Board) is established by the Government Procurement Act 2001 (the Act). The functions of the board under the Act are:

to review, and give advice to Territory entities on, procurement issues;
to review, and give advice on:
- procurement proposals and activities referred to the Board by a Minister or responsible chief executive officer; or
- the procurement proposals for procurement matters declared by the Minister;
to review procurement proposals of Territory entities in accordance with the regulations;
to consider, advise on and, if appropriate, endorse procurement practices and methods for use by Territory entities;
to provide advice to the Minister on any issue relevant to the procurement activities of Territory entities or the operation of this Act; and
to exercise any other function given to the Board under this Act or any other Territory law.

The Chair of the Board is Ms Meredith Whitten, Deputy Director-General, Workforce Capability and Governance, CMTEDD. The position of Chair, like all Board memberships, is part-time, appointed by the Minister for Government Services and Procurement (the Minister) under the Act. The Chair reports directly to the Minister in relation to her role on the Board.

The ACT Government has a policy of achieving and maintaining 50% representation of women on its boards and committees. The Office for Women (Community Services Directorate) is consulted each time a Board vacancy is filled. The Offices of Disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Multicultural Affairs and LGBTIQ Affairs are also consulted each time a Board vacancy is filled.

Mr Glenn Bain, Executive Group Manager, Procurement ACT, CMTEDD attends the Board as an ex officio advisor. Mr Bain provides insight into procurement policies, practices, matters arising and fosters efficient communication channels from the Board within CMTEDD to aid its operations.

In 2019‑20, the Board will continue to provide strategic procurement advice and endorse procurement practices and methods for use by Territory entities.

Internal Accountability

Membership of the Board

Section 11 of the Government Procurement Act stipulates the Board comprises nine part‑time members:

Chair, who is a public employee member;
Deputy Chair, who is a public employee member;
three other public employee members; and
four non-public employee members.

The Chair of the Board at 30 June 2019 is Meredith Whitten.

Table 1: Membership of the Board for 2018-2019 Financial Year
Name	Role	Meetings Attended	Notes
Ms Meredith Whitten Chair Public Employee Member	Deputy Director-General, Workforce Capability and Governance, Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate	32/35
Ms Louise Gilding Deputy Chair Public Employee Member	Executive Group Manager, Housing, Community Services Directorate	24/35
Mr Damon Hall Public Employee Member	Executive Group Manager, Commercial, Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate	26/35
Mr Dominic Lane Public Employee Member	Commissioner, ACT Emergency Services Agency Directorate	21/31	Last Board meeting was 7 May 2019
Ms Fleur Flanery Public Employee Member	Executive Branch Manager, Public Transport Operations, Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate	24/35	Ms Flanery was on leave until 11 September 2018
Mr Stephen Goggs Non-Public Employee Member		6/7	Last Board meeting was 28 August 2018
Ms Virginia Shaw Non-Public Employee Member		34/35	Attended one meeting as an observer
Mr Richard Bear Non-Public Employee Member		31/35
Mr Roger Broughton Non-Public Employee Member		27/35	Last Board meeting was 12 July 2019
Ms Suzy Nethercott-Watson Non-Public Employee Member		26/27	Joined the Board 18 September 2018

Conflict of Interest

The Board has instituted arrangements to manage declarations of conflicts of interest to recognize that members, during the course of the year, may be faced with potential conflicts of interest due to their other responsibilities.

The Board has instituted the following arrangements:

Members are aware and support the Board’s Charter and have signed a Code of Conduct agreement.
Members are requested to identify whether they have a potential conflict of interest in respect of a proposal or policy matter prior to the related documents being considered.
Prior to the commencement of all meetings, members are also invited to state any declarations of interest that may arise due to the business to be considered at the meeting.
Members with a financial conflict of interest in a matter are not involved in the discussion or endorsement relating to that matter. For declarations of interest that are non-financial, Board consensus is reached as to whether the member who declared the interest partakes in the discussion or endorsement of the proposal.

The minutes of the meeting reflect the identification of any potential conflict(s) of interest and any action taken by the Board in respect of any conflict(s).

There were 35 declarations of interest recorded during 2018-19 financial year, of which 28 disclosures were made by Public Employee Members and seven were made by Non‑Public Employee Members. For openness and transparency, Public Employee Members may declare an interest when a procurement proposal relates to their directorate even though they may not have a direct involvement with the proposal.

Remuneration

Public Employee Members of the Board do not receive any remuneration for their participation.

The remuneration for non-public employee members of the board is determined from time to time by the ACT Remuneration Tribunal. Currently, Non‑Public Members are paid $25,985 per annum. The latest determination can be viewed at: https://www.remunerationtribunal.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/1327112/Determination-5-of-2019-PTPOH.pdf

Support Staffing and Financial Resources

In addition to Mr Glenn Bain, Executive Group Manager, Procurement ACT attending the Board as an ex officio advisor, the Board is supported by a Secretariat, resourced by Procurement ACT.

Consideration of Proposals

The Board considered 73 proposals in 2018-2019 financial year. Of the 73 proposals presented for endorsement by the Board:

35: single pass proposals (procurement review); and
38: two pass proposals (strategic review and procurement review).

Table 2: Board deliberations in comparison with previous years
	2014-2015	2015-2016	*2016-2017*	2017-2018	*2018-2019*
Total Board Meetings	32*	34	28^	28^	35^#
Business Meetings	1	1	0	1	1
Proposal Meetings	31*	33	28^	28^	34
Proposals considered	67	63	67	68	73
Estimated Value of Proposals ($ million)	2,096	1,908	913	1,848	1,790

Notes:

* This includes 3 meetings held electronically, that is, via email

^ This includes 2 meetings held electronically, that is, via email

^#This includes 6 meetings held electronically, that is, via email

Table 3: Summary of proposals considered by the Board in 2018-2019 Financial Year
Procurement Method	Number	Percentage of Number*	Estimated Value ($m)	Percentage of Value*
Public Tender	43	59%	1,528.8	85%
Variations	12	16%	208.7	12%
Single Select Tender	5	5%	45	3%
Select Tender	2	3%	7.2	0%
Presentation and updates*	11	16%	0	0%

Note: *Presentations and Updates do not have values assigned to them.

Table 4: Breakdown of proposals by directorate
Directorate	Number	Percentage of Number^	Estimated Value ($M)	Percentage of Value^
Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development	26	37%	844.8	47%
Justice and Community Safety	2	3%	39.4	2%
Community Services	7	9%	40.9	2%
Education	4	5%	74.1	4%
Health	12	16%	433	25%
Transport and City Services	16	22%	337.7	19%
Suburban Land Agency	2	3%	6.6	0.3%
City Renewal Authority	3	4%	6.3	0.3%
Environmental Planning and Sustainable Development	1	1%	7.3	0.4%

Note: ^ This Table includes individual procurements that have come before the Board, including those that have had both a first and second pass. Note the sum of the estimated value column may not add to be the same as for Table 3 due to rounding.

Further information on the Government Procurement Board’s operations can be obtained from

Chair, ACT Government Procurement Board
meredith.whitten@act.gov.au
+ 61 2 6205 5147

Secretariat Government Procurement Board
governmentprocurementboard@act.gov.au
+ 61 2 6207 0254