Contracts
On 20 June 2001, the Senate agreed to an order requiring each Minister to table a letter of advice that a list of contracts, in respect of each Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 agency administered by that Minister, has been placed on the Internet, with access to the list through the department or agency home page. The Order was subsequently amended on 27 September 2001, 18 June 2003 and 26 June 2003, and requires the letter to be tabled no later than two calendar months after the end of the calendar and financial years and requires departments and agencies to report the following details on their Internet listings:
- Each contract entered into by the department or agency which has not been fully performed or which has been entered into in the previous 12 months, and which provides for a consideration to the value of $100,000 or more;
- The amount of consideration for each such contract;
- The contractor and the subject matter of each contract;
- Reporting of 'date' information on the listing, including:
- Contract commencement date;
- contract end date (identified or anticipated);
- relevant reporting period covered by the listing
- whether each such contract contains provisions requiring the parties to maintain confidentiality of any of its provisions, or whether there are any other requirements of confidentiality, and a statement of reasons for the confidentiality;
- an estimate of the cost of complying with the order; and,
- a statement of the method used to estimate the cost of compliance.
On 19 June 2003, the Government agreed that it would comply with the spirit of the Order on the basis that:
- agencies will use the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet guidelines on the scope of public interest immunity (in Government Guidelines for Official Witnesses before Parliamentary Committees) to determine whether information regarding individual contracts will be provided;
- agencies will not disclose information if disclosure would be contrary to the Privacy Act 1988, or to other statutory secrecy provisions, or if the Commonwealth has given an undertaking to another party that the information will not be disclose; and
- compliance with the Senate order will be progressive as agencies covered by the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 refine arrangements and processes to meet the requirements.
