Proposed Draft Procurement Policy

Overview

A review of Council’s current procurement methods has been conducted to assess whether current procurement process’s best reflect modern governance practices and service delivery for both internal and external stakeholders.

The first step of the Review considers procurement thresholds and local business participation in the Procurement Policy to provide procurement thresholds and criteria weightings that reflect modern risk and management practises, provides an improved customer experience, embed accountability controls within our software systems and results in a simplification of processes.

Key Challenges

The current Procurement Policy was established in 2014 and due for review. The review focused on accommodating key challenges of the current Policy in order to strengthen:

• Local contractors, suppliers and manufacturers participation and engagement levels;
• Risk Management practises when engaging goods and services;
• Thresholds which reduce restrictions and encourage local businesses participation;
• Corporate Credit Card conditions of use; and
• Procurement methods to align with best practice.

A new Draft Procurement Policy has been developed and endorsed by both the Alexandrina Council Audit and Risk Committee and the Council, to progress to community engagement

Policy Key deliverables

The Draft Procurement Policy has been prepared as best practice, by utilising the Local Government Association Procurement (LGAP) procurement policy template, with the inclusion of additional context to meet our community’s specific business needs including:

• Minimum weighting increase to 30% for non-priced criteria for ‘Local Economic Benefit’
• Exemption process added – ‘Exemptions from this Policy’
• Corporate Credit Card process added – ‘Procurement Methods’
• New Corporate template format

The proposed Draft Procurement Policy can be viewed here.

The draft Procurement Policy is supported by a Procurement procedure and a Corporate Credit Card procedure that provide the operational framework for administering the Procurement Policy. These procedures do not require public consultation however, the key principles of these Procedures and more information on the review process undertaken by Council in the development of this Policy can be viewed here.

How to submit feedback:

• Online Survey - Click the survey below (takes less than 2 minutes)

• By Mail - please direct written submission to alex@alexandrina.sa.gov.au or
  by post to Att: CEO, Alexandrina Council, PO Box 21, Goolwa SA 5214, or
• In Person - where you can complete a hard copy survey at the Strathalbyn or Goolwa offices.

Submissions regarding the proposal will be accepted by Council until Friday 1 September 2023, 5pm