The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA Act) requires that Council maintain a publicly available register of contracts to which it is a party and which has, or is likely to have, a value of $150,000 or more. The current Council Contracts Register can be found in the link below.
Council Contracts Register
PDF – Click to download
The contracts that must be reported include:
- Projects e.g. construction, infrastructure or property development
- Provision of goods or services
- Transfer of real property
- Lease of real property
Contracts of employment do not need to be reported. The GIPA Act identifies three classes of contracts that must be reported. The information to be reported varies with each class of contract.
Class 1 Contracts
Class 1 includes any contracts that Council is a party to and that has, or is likely to have, a value of $150,000 or more. Most contracts entered into by Council following the usual tendering process will be Class 1 contracts.
Class 2 Contracts
Class 2 contracts are those where;
- there has not been a tender process
- the proposed contract has been the subject of a tendering process and the terms and conditions of the contract have been substantially negotiated with the successful tenderer.
- the obligations of one or more parties under the contract to maintain or operate infrastructure or assets could continue for 10 years or more.
- the contract involves a privately financed project as defined by guidelines published by the Treasury.
- the contract involves a transfer of a significant asset of the agency concerned to another party to the contract in exchange for the transfer of an asset to the agency.
Class 3 Contracts
If a Class 2 contract has (or is likely to have) a value of $5 million or more, it becomes a Class 3 contract.
Some confidential information does not need to be included in the register. This is set out in Section 32 of the GIPA Act. For full details about the register refer to Division 5 of the GIPA Act.