Senate Order on Government Agency Contracts

On 20 June 2001, Australia’s Senate agreed to an order which requires each government agency (as defined by the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997) to publish aspects of its contracts with a value of $100,000 or more on its Internet homepage. The Senate subsequently amended its order on 27 September 2001, in June 2003 and again on 4 December 2003.

The amended order requires that the list of contracts include details of:

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

Following is a list of the Department’s contracts for the purposes of the Senate Order:

• Senate Order contract listing—1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011 [DOC: 288 KB]
• Senate Order contract listing—1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011 [PDF: 129 KB]

Previous Listings:

• Senate Order contract listing—1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010 [DOC: 251 KB]
• Senate Order contract listing—1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010 [PDF: 260 KB]

The Department’s contracts are a mix of fixed price and variable price contracts. The latter’s values are dependent on the level of demand for the contracted goods or services. In those cases an estimate of the total value of the contract has been made. In many instances contracts are for terms longer than one year. The values quoted are the best estimates that can be made on the information available to the Department at the time the list was prepared. The values are subject to change. Relevant factors in determining estimates include expenditure to date, the budget for the contract and an assessment of the likely number of users of the contract for the remainder of the term of the contract. All values in this report (other than those annotated to the contrary) are GST inclusive.

Please note: a request seeking access to any of the following contracts by a member of the public or a Federal Parliamentarian outside of Parliamentary Proceedings will be considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982. You can obtain more information about how to make an FOI request by clicking Freedom of Information.