How does your Council ensure contractors have compliant OHS management systems to relevant legislative requirements during the tender evaluation process. Do you have a dedicated OHS officer who evaluates the contractor documentation and what qualifications do they have as a minimum? 

Any officer who is given responsibility to administer OHS within the organisation should have, as a minimum, Certificate IV in OHS. This can be obtained a number of ways – TAFE, Uni or other relevant training organisations.  

Would participating Councils please note that the annual eTender renewal fee of $1057.44

including GST was due for payment on 23 September 2011. Details of this were included in an earlier article on this Hub in August.

A closer investigation of actual usage has revealed that 7 Councils that have paid for the service do not
in fact engage in eTendering. Within that number, there are 5 of the original Link Group that created the Hub and its eTendering service link.

If you are one of those 5 then now is the time for you to have a serious think about where you are going with this, and to contact me and advise of your intentions going forward regarding usage and payment.

I will in turn contact eValua who have asked me to follow up on the income thay can expect !

Two weeks ago the system was demonstrated to Bayside and today CGD are providing a demo session for Darryn Paspa and staff at Kingston.  

In March 2011 I received advice from Mark Hayes of Maddocks confirming the acceptance of an abridged Form of Agreement (Contract Documents) that consists of around 4 or 5 pages and takes the place of the previous practice of preparing contract documents that comprise tender process documents and correspondence, specifications and submitted tenderer documents. 

In essence, the abridged Form of Agreement refers to the 'Contract Documents' as listed in the Annexure and is accompanied by the Sealing Clause and Notice of Appointment.

At Greater Dandenong, we provide the Contractor and our Superintendent with a 'hard copy' and the Council copy is placed in our EDRMS system.

If you would like more in formation on how this works please call me on 03 9239 5167. 

I have noticed with concern that the LG Procurement eHub website created by the DPCD has remained stagnant over the past two months in terms of procurement news and PEP updates. This is not surprising considering that most if not all the DPCD staff involved in the creation of that site have left the DPCD.

I note that the Discussion Board is alive and kicking which is one of the main reasons why the original Link Group eHub was created.

The original Link Group eHub site (this one) was renamed as above and will now be updated weekly with relevant LG Council procurement information along with the automatic updates of eTendering activity by the 24 Councils using the eValua eTendering system.

It is up to you of course if you take any interest in this site but you have paid for it to continue and I have decided to make it active again.

If you take a little time to look again at the links that it has built in by Tim Lawson and the Project Team when it was created you will note that it offers LG Vic Councils a vast range of information.

John Harrison - 03 9239 5167 

CGD staff demonstrated the eValua system to Darebin on Thursday, September 8th.

City of Bendigo, Mitchell Shire and Bayside have requested details of the system in the
past 3 weeks.

With the discounted per annum fee, the advantage of significant admin cost savings, and the tender upload & download reports accepted by the Government Auditor, it is an investment second to none. 

Vic LG Councils who have not considered eTendering are encouraged to obtain the basic
details of the system from John Harrison at Greater Dandenong on 03 9239 5167.

Local Government Procurement Guru, John Hughes, retired on Friday,
September 2nd, 2011 after 24 years in Local Government with the former
City of Springvale and Greater Dandenong (post amalgamation).

John played pivotal roles in the establishment of the Maps Group, the LG
Vic Link Group, and along with Tim Lawson, proposed the idea of the LG
Vic Procurement Hub which was established under a DPCD funded
Collaborative Procurement Program.

John has appreciated his working relationships with all LG Vic, MAVP and PA 
procurement professionals over the past 24 years and has made many lasting
friendships along the way.

On Friday 26 August 2011 at the PA Awards dinner, John was presented with
an award for his outstanding contribution to LG Vic procurement over 24 years.

Under the terms of the contract with eValua, the annual eTender Licence fee is due on

23 September 2011.

Greater Dandenong Council no longer brokers fee collections and participating Councils

are requested to arrange payment by the due date directly with eValua by either of the

following methods -

By cheque posted to Evalua Pty Ltd

66B Maryborough Street

Fyshwick  ACT  2609

By direct debit

Bank: NAB

BSB:  082-902

Account No:  52-824-2390

eValua's Tax Invoice is 3185 dated 16 August 2011 and their ABN is 33 096 164 313

CGD can provide a faxed copy of the tax Invoice upon request to John Harrison on
9239 5167 or jharro@cgd.vic.gov.au

eValua's contact details are - Phone: 02 6228 1904   Fax: 02 6228 1131
email:  accounts@evalua.com.au

The following 21 Vic LG Councils are using the eValua eTendering system as follows -

Banyule  Brimbank  Casey  Central Goldfields  Darebin  Frankston  Glen Eira
Greater Dandenong  Hepburn Shire  Hobsons Bay  Hume  Macedon Ranges  Manningham  Maroondah  Melbourne  Melton  Monash  Moreland  Mount Alexander  Yarra and Yarra Ranges. 

eTendering information for each user Council automatically transfers to the DPCD managed LG Procurement eHub site. 

At current date a total of only 38 Vic LG Councils have moved to employ

eTendering as their key Procurement system.

eValua is being used by 21 Councils;

TenderLink is being used by 14 Councils; and

TenderSearch is being used by 3 Councils.   

Most of the other Vic LG Councils are using their own On Line system but

some are surprisingly still using a manual system.

Purchasing aggregators such as Procurement Australia and MAV Procurement

also use eTendering systems for their supply contract services.

eTendering systems have operated successfully for more than 10 years now

and provide significant savings in terms of time, cost and paper waste.

On line access to extensive supplier data bases provide the opportunity to extend

the level of competition for the range of purchasing categories that Vic LG Councils

and also private enterprise actively pursue.

Change management support for any Vic LG Council considering the move to eTendering

can be facilitated by the eValua customer support team and the Contracts staff at Greater 

Dandenong Council on 03 9239 5167.

The eValua system is also utilised by the following organisations -

Brisbane City Council

ACT Procurement Solutions (ACT Government)

Sydney University

Centrelink

Griffith University (Qld)

University of South Pacific (Fiji)

Fiji Electricity Authority

Victorian Dept of Transport  

Brisbane City Council are reportedly the second largest local government Council

in the world and have been using the eValua system for 10 years. 

Victorian Local Government Council Procurement Professionals are invited to contact John Harrison on 03 9239 5167 who can provide an overview, advice, documentation and training on how to access the Vic LG Procurement Hub and the eVALUA eTendering system which offers a unique cost saving opportunity and an on line tender evaluation module.

An added feature of the eVALUA eTendering system is that it provides automatic tender and contract information transfers into the Information Hub under the Current, Awarded & Upcoming Tenders links, and will eventually become a powerful tool supporting Aggregated Purchasing initiatives by Metro and Regional Council Groups.

This Hub also provides for information and specification sharing via the chat room and offers access to the suite of standard tender documents prepared by Macquarie Lawyers.

John Harrison