Enhancing government procurement

Tabled Report 18: 2021–22

Tabled date

2022-06-14

Report year

2021-22

State finances Whole of government

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: We recommend Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement work together to: develop performance measures and targets that monitor whether departments are collaborating on procurement. These

   We recommend Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement work together to:

   • develop performance measures and targets that monitor whether departments are collaborating on procurement. These should be designed to drive department collaboration to achieve increased efficiency, effectiveness, and economy in procurement activity at a whole-of-government level

   • report on performance against the targets, at a whole-of-government and department level

   • require departments to report to Queensland Government Procurement on these measures. Where possible, reporting should be automated to minimise the workload on departments.

2. QAO's text Addressed to: Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement

   We recommend that Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement engage with departments to understand the costs and benefits (at a whole-of-government level) of moving to a universal and consistent system for classifying expenditure (such as the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code).

   The introduction of new financial systems offers an opportunity to implement it, but it can also be used with existing financial systems.

3. QAO's text Addressed to: We recommend Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement: identify opportunities to collaborate and share departmental expenditure data between the 2 agencies, to improve procurement outcomes and budget monitoring across government formalise the data sharing arrangement between the 2 agencies where additional data (such as on suppliers, prices, and usage) is needed to make informed procurement decisions, Queensland Government Procurement and the category councils

   We recommend Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement:

   • identify opportunities to collaborate and share departmental expenditure data between the 2 agencies, to improve procurement outcomes and budget monitoring across government
   • formalise the data sharing arrangement between the 2 agencies
   • where additional data (such as on suppliers, prices, and usage) is needed to make informed procurement decisions, Queensland Government Procurement and the category councils should collect it and share it with departments. 

4. QAO's text Addressed to: Departments

   Departments should:

   • use whole-of-government arrangements
   • report when they are not using these arrangements and the reasons why to Queensland Government Procurement.

   Queensland Government Procurement should:

   • monitor and report if departments are using existing whole-of-government arrangements
   • identify where departments have instead engaged with the same suppliers outside of these arrangements
   • engage with these departments to better understand why this has occurred.

   Queensland Government Procurement should then use this information when negotiating future whole-of-government arrangements to drive better supply and price.

5. QAO's text Addressed to: We recommend the Queensland Government Procurement Committee endorses the most recent data strategy. We also recommend that Queensland Government Procurement develops an implementation plan that outlines how it will achieve all of its objectives within its most recent data strategy. This plan

   We recommend the Queensland Government Procurement Committee endorses the most recent data strategy.

   We also recommend that Queensland Government Procurement develops an implementation plan that outlines how it will achieve all of its objectives within its most recent data strategy. This plan should include appropriate key performance measures that monitor progress against the objectives and milestone dates.

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO