Procurement Policy

Purpose of the Policy

The purpose of the Procurement Policy is to guide Council’s procurement activities in a manner that promotes open and fair competition, ensures Value for Money, and upholds the principles of transparency, probity, and accountability. It supports ethical, efficient, and effective procurement practices that deliver value to the community and align with Council’s strategic objectives.

Council is required under sections 108 and 109 of the Local Government Act 2020 (the Act) to prepare, adopt and comply with its procurement policy.

A review of this Policy was conducted in line with the recently released shared template produced by the Municipal Association of Victoria in collaboration with legal and sector representatives. Whilst maintaining all critical information as required by the Act, Council wanted to ensure that the content, processes and thresholds are applicable and implementable within our systems and context.

Proposed Amendments to Policy

Changes to the Procurement Policy recommended through this review include:

• Minimum Market Competition Thresholds – these have been reviewed in line with sector best practice, increasing costs and consideration of purchase types within thresholds. It has also considered the CEO delegation as adopted by Council in March 2025 that set the CEO purchasing delegation limit of $250,000.
• Cumulative Spend – Council had previously reviewed this section (2024 review) as current systems do not allow for real-time cross-organisation reporting on cumulative spend. The wording considered as part of this policy ensures that cumulative/aggregate spend is considered to achieve value-for-money but is not committing Council to a specific process that cannot be reasonably implemented.
  The approach to cumulative spend should be proactive and strategic rather than reactive and based on complex system reporting.
• Conflict of Interest – this draft Policy has a dedicated section detailing Conflict of Interest expectations and management as this is a critical risk exposure in rural communities where businesses and providers are interconnected with staff and Councillors.
• Purchase Order Requirements – there are certain purchases where it is either unreasonable or unpractical for a purchase order to be produced, this was not enabled under the previous policy.
• Stipulating clear ‘follow up’ processes – the new draft policy includes clear sections on unsuccessful tenders, variations and negotiations that were either not comprehensively detailed or were unclear in their interpretation. Hindmarsh Shire Council Ordinary Council Meeting Agenda
• Quadruple Bottom Line is an aspirational approach but operationally caused some concern regarding the resourcing and efficiency of applying these to procurements at Council’s scale. This has been included as it is best practice, but the wording has been adjusted slightly to allow Council to consider whether it is reasonable and proportional to apply to specified procurement activities.

Feedback from You

Before Council adopts the amended Policy, we'd like to hear from you! Please read the draft Policy (attached to this page) and complete the survey below and provide your feedback on the Policy and the proposed amendments.

Please provide your feedback by 11:59pm on Sunday 19 October 2025.

If you have any questions about this policy, please contact Petra Croot, Director Corporate and Community Services, on (03) 5391 4444, or email info@hindmarsh.vic.gov.au.