Contracts

A requirement of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (Section 3, division 5) is that Council maintain a register of government contracts valued at $150,000 or more.

  • Class 1 contracts: contracts that the agency is a party to, which has (or is likely to have) a value of $150,000 or more.
  • Class 2 contracts: additional information is required to be entered in the government contracts register for class 1 contracts to which any of the following applies:
    • when a there has not been a tender process,
    • the proposed contract has been the subject of a tendering process and the terms and conditions of the contract have been substantially negotiated with the successful tenderer,
    • the obligations of one or more parties under the contract to maintain or operate infrastructure or assets for 10 or more years,
    • the contract involves a privately financed project as defined by guidelines published by the Treasury,
    • the contract involves transfer of a significant agency concerned to another party to the contract in exchange for the transfer of an asset to the agency.
  • Class 3 contracts: if a class 2 contract has (or is likely to have) a value of $5 million or more.

Confidential information

Under section 32(1) of the GIPA Act, confidential information is not required to be included in this Register, including:

(a)  the commercial-in-confidence provisions of a contract

(b)  details of any unsuccessful tender

(c)  any matter that could reasonably be expected to affect public safety or security

(d)  a copy of a contract, a provision of a contract or any other information in relation to a contract that is of such a nature that its inclusion would result in there being an overriding public interest against disclosure.

Generally, the types of information that will not be included in this Register include:

  • personal information
  • commercial-in-confidence contract provisions
  • any other information where there is an overriding public interest against its disclosure (see section 14 of the GIPA Act).

A copy of the contract will not be included in this Register where the contract and its provisions are commercial-in-confidence, or where there is an overriding public interest against disclosure of the information. If a copy of a contract or its provisions are not included in this Register for these reasons, it is not intended that a copy of the contract or provisions will be included in this Register at a later date.