Doing business with Council

Council Officers must conduct all procurement, tendering and business relationships with honesty, fairness and probity at all levels. Council Officers must not disclose confidential or proprietary information.

All procurement activities must be conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 1993 and Local Government (General) Regulation 2005.

Council Officers must follow correct procedures and display behaviour that enhances and promotes honesty and integrity and protects the public’s interest.

Council Officers must ensure that the process of awarding contracts is open, clear, fully documented and defensible.

All conditions of procurement must be the same for all Contractors and/or Suppliers. This can be extended to the procurement assessment process and the selection criteria.

Any Council Officer or Councillor with an actual or perceived conflict of interest must address that conflict immediately in accordance with Council’s Code of Conduct and the Good Conduct and Administrative Practice Guidelines for state and local government.

Council Officers must not engage in any practices that aim to give a potential Contractor or Supplier an advantage over others, nor engage in any form of collusive practise. Council Officers must not approach a Contractor or Supplier to pay, provide a gift or benefit for receipt of advice. Council Officers must not disclose a competitor’s price to a prospective supplier.

The identification and management of risks must be built into all of Council’s procurement processes.

All procurement processes must be based on clearly articulated and defensible evaluation criteria consistent with the legislative and policy framework. All actions taken by Council Officers must be robust and defensible to the public.

Council Officers must not by virtue of their position accept or acquire for a personal advantage any gift, gratuity or hospitality except which is permitted under the Council’s Code of Conduct or in accordance the Local Government Act 1993.

Depending on the level of expenditure, Council is required to use different methods of procurement to ensure legislative compliance.  This ranges from a formal public advertised tender, through to quotations on a small and larger scale. 

Please note: If adherence to Work Health and Safety (WH&S) requirements is relevant to the services provided by a supplier, those suppliers must have a WH&S management system which ensures compliance with all the duties of an employer under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. Only suppliers we deem to have acceptable WH&S systems will be considered for Council work.

Council operates a decentralised purchasing system and requests for quotations may come from any business unit.

Quotations are sought when there is no existing contract or preferred supplier arrangement and is based on the following threshold limits as noted in Council’s Procurement Policy.