Annual Report 2003-04 - The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

One of the most important challenges for departments is to build into their contracts for service delivery arrangements which will ensure providers deliver equitably to all Australians who are eligible—including people who may not be the easiest customers to reach, for example, the elderly, people with a disability or Indigenous Australians.

Dr Shergold in an address to the Australian Institute of Administrative Law,
on Administrative Law and Public Service, 3 July 2003

The policies and procedures for selecting consultants, and approving expenditure for them, are set out in the department’s CEIs. The procurement method is determined having regard to the nature of the work involved and the broad cost thresholds set out in the CEIs.

During 2003–04, 78 consultants were engaged to carry out research projects or to provide professional and technical advice that could not be provided by staff of the department.

Table 9 shows total expenditure on all consultancy services, covering both payments made on new contracts let in 2003–04 and payments made on contracts let in previous years. The larger consultancy contracts—those to the value of $10,000 or more—are detailed in Appendix 4 to this report, along with brief notes on the procurement methods used.

Table 9 Consultancy trends
Area utilising consultancy services	2003–04		2002–03		2001–02
Area utilising consultancy services	No. let	Total expenditure on new and existing consultancies	No. let	Total expenditure on new and existing consultancies	No. let	Total expenditure on new and existing consultancies
Policy advice and government support services	39	$1,151,948	28	$4,475,337	20	$353,436
Women’s policy	35	$11,445,945	40	$4,744,300	76	$5,289,037
People and resources management	4	$358,303	12	$371,767	5	$66,181
Total	78	$12,956,196	80	$9,591,404	101	$5,708,654

In 2003–04 the department let one contract within the definition of ‘competitive tendering and contracting’. Under Output 4.4, a contract was awarded to Exceed Systems Integration Pty Ltd at a cost of $672,500 for the set-up of service desk services.

The department negotiated extensions for two of its other service contracts, neither of which constituted ‘competitive tendering and contracting’ as defined by the Requirements for Annual Reports approved by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit.

The first was a further 12-month extension of the arrangements for domestic and international travel with Synergi, the department’s travel provider. The market test of travel management which was to take place in 2003–04 was deferred pending the result of a whole-of-government review on the usage of smaller airlines by Australian Government agencies. The second was an extension until 31 December 2004 of the contract with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu for the provision of internal audit services.

Table of Contents

Use of Consultants and Service Contractors