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COMMITTEE'S REPORT

The committee tabled its report on 16 December 2022.

View:  Report No. 28, 57th Parliament, - Auditor-General Report 18: 2021-22 – Enhancing government procurement

Overview

Role of the Auditor-General 

The role of the Auditor-General is to provide Parliament with independent assurance of public sector accountability and performance. This is achieved through reporting to Parliament on the results of its financial and performance audits.

About the Auditor-General Report

The purpose of the report is to examine government procurement (the process of purchasing goods and services) and how more effective processes can deliver better value for money and savings across government.

The report makes 5 recommendations addressed to Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement (within the Department of Energy and Public Works) as follows:

Recommendation 1:

Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement (within the Department of Energy and Public Works) should monitor and report on how departments are collaborating to achieve whole-of government procurement outcomes

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.

Recommendation 2:

Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement should engage with departments about the costs and benefits (at a whole-of-government level) of moving to a universal classification system for expenditure

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.

Recommendation 3:

Queensland Treasury and Queensland Government Procurement should enhance information and data sharing, between the 2 departments, to support strategic procurement decision making

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.

Recommendation 4:

Departments should use existing whole-of-government procurement arrangements (designed to streamline and improve procurement for specific goods or services), and Queensland Government Procurement should monitor and report on this

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.

Recommendation 5:

Queensland Government Procurement should ensure its most recent data strategy is endorsed. It should also develop, and report against, a detailed implementation plan which outlines how its data strategy objectives will be achieved

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.[1]

Referral to Committee 

Standing Order 194B provides that the Committee of the Legislative Assembly shall as soon as practicable after a report of the Auditor-General is tabled in the Assembly refer that report to the relevant portfolio committee(s) for consideration. 

The committee is responsible under section 94 of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 for assessing the integrity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness of government financial management by examining government financial documents and considering reports of the Auditor-General.

The Committee of the Legislative Assembly referred this Auditor-General report to the committee on 24 June 2022.

Public briefings 

View: Program - Transcript - Broadcast - Monday, 15 August 2022
View: Program - Transcript - Broadcast - Monday 29 August 2022

[1] Queensland Audit Office, Auditor-General’s Report No 18 - Enhancing government procurement, pp 2-3.