In comparison to your private sector clients, the buying process for Government is generally more structured and defined. By having a structured and consistent procurement process with defined rules and policies, businesses can have confidence their bids will be fairly evaluated.

Tendering is a competitive process and like competitive sport, understanding in detail the ‘rules of the game’ can significantly improve your chances of success.

For lower value purchases, a simple procurement process is used based on quotes from a small number of suppliers. For higher value purchases, a more detailed tender process, open to the wider market is often undertaken. Either way – understanding the buying process is important for businesses.

Government Probity

In undertaking procurement, Government has a strong focus on probity. Maintaining proper probity involves evidence of ethical behaviour by adopting and following well-considered procedures and processes to ensure procurement decisions are fair, transparent and defensible.

Government buyers must uphold the appropriate practices in managing any perceived or actual conflicts of interest and limit or avoid their contact with bidders during a procurement process.

Government buyers are not normally able to:

• Give out any commercially sensitive information or strategies that may benefit an individual supplier’s response
• Provide any advice or answer any questions from the supplier that may give a competitive advantage (questions that warrant new tender information will normally be made available to all suppliers)
• Maintain the sort of personal relationship with a supplier that may be seen to be providing unfair advantage.

NOTE: As part of providing fair and equitable treatment for all suppliers, the responses to any questions asked during a tender response are normally provided to all bidders. Bidders should be cautious about what Intellectual Property they include in their questions as it may be shared with all bidders.