Government reduces red tape for local businesses

I am pleased to announce that ACT Labor Government is reducing red tape for Territory businesses dealing with the ACT Government.

The Legislative Assembly this morning passed amendments to the Government Procurement Act 2001. The amendments will improve efficiency by streamlining ACT Government procurement activities and contribute to open government.

The amendments are part of the ACT Labor Government’s commitment to making it easier for businesses to operate in the ACT. This commitment will be further demonstrated next month when the Government presents its Business Development Strategy, which will make it simpler and easier to do business in the Territory.

The first amendment to the Act relates to the financial threshold at which "notifiable" contracts entered into by organisations to undertake Government work must be open for public scrutiny, and the way in which that threshold is set. Notifiable contracts are those that are above the financial threshold.

To make future changes to the threshold quicker and easier, the Procurement Act has been amended so that the threshold will be set by regulation. Removing the current "default" threshold stated in the Act will prevent any opportunity for confusion that could arise from having different thresholds in the Act and in the Regulations.

This simple change will make the process of notifying ACT Government contracts more efficient. An amendment to the Government Procurement Regulation 2007 will be notified within a week and will commence when the change to the Procurement Act comes into effect.

The Government has foreshadowed that it will raise the notifiable threshold, from $20,000 to $25,000, now that the Act has been amended.

The second amendment to the Act streamlines the reporting of "reportable contracts", which under the Procurement Act are "notifiable" contracts that need to have confidential text removed. Currently the Act requires the Government to provide the Public Accounts Committee with a report on reportable contracts every six months. The reporting period has been amended to every 12 months.

This will reduce administrative processes while maintaining the transparency of Government contracting. The public text of these contracts is available at any time from the Contracts Register on the Shared Services Procurement website.

The third amendment to the Act corrects an inconsistency in the Procurement Act. The Act currently has one section stating that public text needs to be publicly available for two years, while another section states that the public text of a contract only needs to be accessible until the contract ends. The amendment corrects this inconsistency in favour of openness and transparency. It clarifies that the public text of notifiable contracts will be publicly accessible for at least two years after the contract ends.

These amendments to the Procurement Act will contribute to more efficient and transparent government. They reduce red tape. They provide greater administrative efficiency. And they contribute to greater openness and transparency around public contracts.