Meeting the Senate Order on departmental and agency contracts

On 20 June 2001, the Senate made an order requiring Ministers to table letters of advice that all Non Corporate Commonwealth Entities (NCCEs) they administer had placed lists of contracts on the internet.

In 2002 and 2007, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration (the Committee) completed two inquiries into the operation of the Senate Order. These inquiries resulted in changes to the Senate Order reporting requirements.

In 2014, as part of a further 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 by reference to AusTender. This and other recommendations were reflected in the revised Senate Order. From 1 July 2015, reports will be generated by the Department of Finance and published on AusTender.

The o​rder and subsequent amendments require the list of contracts indicate:

1. each contract entered into by the entity which has not been fully performed or which has been entered into during the previous 12 months, and which provides for a consideration to the value of $100 000 or more;
2. the contractor, the amount of the consideration and the subject matter of each such contract, the commencement date of the contract, the duration of the contract, the relevant reporting period and the twelve-month period relating to the contract listings;
3. 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 the reasons for the confidentiality; and
4. an estimate of the cost of complying with this order and a statement of the method used to make the estimate.

Note: The contracts listed in the Senate Order contain confidentiality provisions of a general nature that are designed to protect the confidential information of the parties that may be obtained or generated in carrying out the contract. The Privacy Act 1988 and other statutory secrecy provisions apply to agency contracts.

Senate Order listing on contracts $100,000 and above

A listing of procurement contracts is available on the AusTender website.

Cost of complying with this order

Cost of complying with current order: approximately $2000

Basis of method used to estimate the cost of compliance: Salaries for the time spent by staff on data collection, quality assurance, management and administrative support.