Procurement Policies

Welcome to the Procurement Policy Bank, where you can find a range of free policies and procedures relevant to not-for-profit Boards and Committees, procurement professionals and the organisations they govern.

As the old adage goes, "None of us is as smart as all of us". The Procurement Policy Bank creates a shared resource that takes the hard-won knowledge of one organisation and shares it with many.

It is important to understand why sound policies are important and what you, and your suppliers, can expect from the adoption of transparent and accountable practices. To read a short discussion of this topic, click here

How to use the Policy Bank

• Step One: Look through the list of policies and procedures below to locate the ones that your Board or organisation needs.
• Step Two: Download the policy you want by clicking on the name and saving it to your own computer (the policies are provided in Microsoft Word format).
• Step Three: Adapt the policy to suit the particular needs of your organisation. This step is very important as parts of the model policies may hold no relevance at all to your organisation, while other parts will need to be added or modified to suit your purposes.
  
  
  • For example, some of the policies refer to a Procurement/Purchasing Department. If your organisation does not have such a Department, who is the responsible person? The template policies also refer to the 'Board', so if your organisation is governed by, say, a Committee of Management you will need to substitute these terms.

  • You also need to discuss which clauses you would like to keep, which you would like to modify, and which you would like to take out - in most cases there is no 'one size fits all' answer.

• Step Four: Adopt the new policy at your next Board or committee meeting.
• Step Five: Make a deposit! If you have some great procurement policies that your organisation thinks would be of use to other groups, email them to service@ourcommunity.com.au or post to Our Community, PO Box 354 North Melbourne, 3051.

Note: Most of the policies on the Internet were prepared for larger organisations, usually with some level of decentralised operation and with clearly defined levels of responsibility. Most are therefore not immediately applicable to small volunteer organisations or those that operate from a single location. They need to be reviewed for appropriateness and adjusted to fit your particular circumstances. It is important to note, however, that accountability and sound internal controls depend on clearly defined policies and procedures in which activities are undertaken by staff with clearly specified areas of responsibility.

Even very small organisations need to ensure that their internal controls are adequate. Defined aspects of each task should be completed by staff with the authority (or delegation) to undertake that task and passed on to a second member of staff to complete other parts of the task, e.g., authorising the documents prepared by the first staff member. Keeping various aspects of activities quarantined from each other and allocating responsibility for each aspect to specified staff is an essential part of good management in even the smallest of organisations.

These policies are not a complete answer to every question related to procurement practices, but should be developed and applied as part of an overall strategy. Check out the other resources and information made available through the website.

Government policies

• Victorian Government Purchasing Board
• Commonwealth Government
• NSW Government Office of Financial Management and in particular the text of its policies
• Queensland Government Marketplace
• South Australian Government's strategic procurement reform policy may be of interest and particularly its procurement policies (and don't forget to use the embedded scroll-bar on the right-hand side).
• Western Australian Government and follow the Procurement Policy links on the left
• Tasmanian Government and scroll down to Part XI
• ACT Government and follow the 'Policies' link on the left (This site is only fully viewable in Internet Explorer.)
• Northern Territory Government

Sample Community Services policies

• Procurement Planning
• Risk Management
• Quality Assurance
• Provider Performance
• Environmental Management
• Environmental Purchasing Policy
• Ethical Behaviour/Fair Dealing
• Local Content
• Social Justice

Local Government Policies