Background
On 29 June 2017, the Joint Select Committee on Government Procurement issued its report Buying into our Future: Review of amendments to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. The Government tabled its response to the Committee's Report on 14 November 2017.
The Government response to the committee’s recommendation to expand the use of Clause 10 of the Commonwealth Contracting Suite (CCS), proposed a ‘clause bank’ of standard terms and conditions be established for use by procuring entities, as appropriate, in Commonwealth contracts above $200,000.
About
The Commonwealth ClauseBank includes pre-drafted contract terms that can be used within existing contract templates or in bespoke contracts by Commonwealth entities when appropriate.
These terms which cover a wide range of matters are optional.
To preserve the legal integrity of these pre-drafted contract terms, they should be incorporated without change (except for substituting defined terms like Customer and/or Supplier for the terminology used in the rest of the contract). Capitalised terms (unless otherwise defined) are based on the definitions in the CCS Glossary. Definitions of any relevant defined terms may need to be added. The terms are not designed to be added to CCS contracts under $200,000 unless specifically noted.
If more substantive changes to the wording are proposed, legal advice should be sought to ensure that any change does not impose onerous terms on Suppliers or compromise the Commonwealth’s position.
