SA Government uses centralised arrangement to buy common goods and services for the government such as ICT equipment, software licensing, professional services, fuel and much more.
Centralised arrangements provide benefits to businesses by:
- standardising how government buys from businesses
- lowering costs when doing business with government
- simplifying terms and conditions
Centralised arrangements are either:
- Single supplier contracts- These enable all agencies to buy directly from the one contracted supplier.
- Panel arrangements- These enable all agencies to buy from a number of selected suppliers through a standing offer arrangement. Businesses bid to be appointed to a panel. Some panels may operate as a pre-qualification list which are a list of approved suppliers who have met certain preliminary conditions to participate in the future competitive tender process.
These contracts and panels may be:
- open - new suppliers can apply to join during the period of the contract
- closed - new suppliers cannot apply to join during the period of the contract. However, where there are compelling reasons to do so, some arrangements may be opened at times for new suppliers to be added
The use of these contracts and panels will be either mandatory or optional to all government agencies.
