How the Council buys products and services

Our approach to procurement

We are working to make selling your products and services to the Council easier.

We aim to

• achieve value for money for ratepayers by sourcing goods, services and works that represent the best outcome for the total cost
• promote open and effective competition
• help develop and encourage local business and industry
• comply with our legal obligations
• create sustainable economic, social and environmental solutions.

How we procure

We use different methods of procurement depending on the total cost of the project or service.

The Council makes a procurement plan and strategy

Council staff will make a procurement plan and strategy before procuring the goods, services or work needed. 

The plan will identify the most suitable way to secure the best commercial solution to meet our requirements. This may involve a number of tender stages using the expression of interest, request for quote, request for proposal or request for tender processes.

Request for quotes

A request for a quote may come from any of our departments.

When there is no existing contract, we ask for quotes based on these limits:

• purchases below $25,000 require a minimum of one quote
• goods, services and minor works up to $100,000 require a minimum of three written quotes.

Open tenders

We run open public tenders for services either not provided by our Supplier Register listing or with a full life value that is outside of the Council’s financial delegation thresholds. These opportunities are advertised via the Government Electronic Tendering Service (GETS) and could be for

• goods, services and minor works over $100,000
• consultants to do construction/infrastructure work over $200,000
• general contractors to do construction/infrastructure work over $1 million.

Closed tenders

We also run closed tenders, where only suppliers from the Council’s Supplier Register are asked to submit a tender for

• trade work contractors to a maximum value of $100,000
• construction or infrastructure work with costs between $100,000 and $200,000
• technical consultancy engagements to a maximum value $200,000
• general construction or infrastructure work with costs below $1 million.

Find out how to get on the Council's Supplier Register

Tenders for Registered Suppliers

The process involving those registered suppliers will be:

1. identifying suppliers from their work category and specialty selections
2. sending those identified suppliers a Notice to Tenderer to advise of the scope of required works and required project pre-qualifications (eg unique work elements, timing, etc)
3. requiring the supplier to provide a response to the Notice signaling their interest to participate in the tender and ability to comply with the project pre-qualifications - parties that do not respond will be deemed to have opted out of the tender process
4. confirming the supplier shortlist to receive the tender documents.

Registrations of interest

We may ask for registrations of interest before we publish open tenders. The registrations of interest will be advertised on the Government Electronic Tendering Service (GETS).

The tender process

The Council prepares tender documentation

The tender documentation usually includes

• a detailed description of the goods or services required for respondents
• response form template to be completed
• the conditions of the tender
• the tender deliverables
• Council specification
• a draft contract

as well as any other relevant documentation.

Open tenders are advertised

Open public tenders are advertised on the Government Electronic Tendering (GETS) website. You’ll need to register with GETS if you want to receive notifications of upcoming open public tender opportunities. You can do it online and it’s free.

Suppliers Register tenders

The Council will distribute the tender to the identified pre-qualified suppliers (following the Notice to Tenderer process) directly for these tender opportunities.

Suppliers respond to the tender

Before you respond

• read all of the documents provided
• attend any pre-tender briefing sessions
• check anything you do not understand with the nominated Council contact officer before the clarification period closes
• plan and prepare your response
• submit your response in the correct format before the closing date.

To find out more, read the Council's Instructions to Suppliers and Standard Conditions (898KB PDF).

The Council evaluates the applications and selects a supplier