Mandatory use of the Commonwealth Contracting Suite for procurement under $200,000 (RMG 420)

The CCS is designed to minimise the burden on businesses contracting with the Commonwealth Government and to streamline and simplify procurement processes for Commonwealth entities.

The mandatory components of the CCS are:

• the Approach to Market (ATM) (incorporating the Glossary, the Commonwealth ATM Terms and the Response to the ATM) and

• the Commonwealth Contract (incorporating the Glossary and the Commonwealth Contract Terms).

The CCS also includes a range of non-mandatory documents.

The CCS Decision Tree, available at https://ccs.finance.gov.au, guides you through relevant considerations to assess whether the CCS is right for your procurement.

NCEs must use the CCS when purchasing goods or services valued under $200,000 (GST inclusive) where a formal contract is required, except as outlined in Part 2 of this guide.

For procurements valued between $200,000 and $1,000,000 (GST inclusive), use of the CCS is encouraged consistent with this guide.

This policy does not apply to other forms of financial arrangements such as grants, disposals and investments; refer to Resource Management Guide No. 411 Grants, Procurements and Other Financial Arrangements.

To ensure the official documentation contains relevant content and is tailored to your procurement, officials need to generate new documents by use of the online smart-form for each new procurement activity undertaken.

NCEs must use the CCS when purchasing goods or services valued under $200,000 (GST inclusive) except when:

• no formal approach to market and/or contract is required (for example when a telephone quote is sought or a procurement is valued below $10,000 and consistent with Resource Management Guide No. 417 Supplier Pay On-Time or Pay Interest Policy available at https://www.finance.gov.au/publications/resource-management-guides/supplier-pay-time-or-pay-interest-policy-rmg-417 payment is made via payment card)

• it is industry practice to use the supplier’s terms and conditions, and any resulting risks are acceptable to the Delegate and subsequently managed

• using a mandated whole-of-government arrangement or standing offer arrangement that prescribes particular contractual arrangements

• purchasing information and communication technology (ICT) goods and services (Digital Sourcing contract templates are available for this purpose at: https://www.dta.gov.au/help-and-advice/ict-procurement)

• conducting a procurement for construction works, specialist scientific equipment or specialist military goods or services

• the procurement utilises paragraph 2.6 of the CPRs

• a formal risk assessment indicates that a bespoke contract is required to manage specific risks of the individual procurement

• the procurement is significantly impacted by Prescribed Terms, that is, terms, conditions, guarantees and warranties implied by law into contracts which cannot be excluded, restricted or modified by agreement (for example lease agreements)

• both procurement and delivery will take place outside Australia.