Page 2891 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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related to the technical aspects of the work, so, for example, the timeliness of the response and the quality of the work completed, and social outcomes, for example, numbers of individuals employed from each of the target groups. Incentive and disincentive payments will apply for all performance measures.
In addition to these significant contracts, the government has conducted several smaller procurements in the year since the Assembly resolution. The Office of Multicultural Affairs, the OMA, in the Community Services Directorate is contracting White Nile, a catering social enterprise owned by a Sudanese woman, to provide catering services for OMA events such as citizenship ceremonies. The value of this procurement is likely to be less than $25,000, so it will not be notified on the ACT government contracts register, but it is an ongoing arrangement that provides White Nile with secure work. In addition to this social contract, the OMA is also supporting White Nile by offering the use of the Theo Notaras Multicultural Centre’s commercial grade kitchen to assist White Nile to establish and grow its business.
Another social procurement follows the previously mentioned procurement for graffiti removal. A further procurement process for graffiti removal for the Woden-Weston region was tendered in December 2011, with quotations sought from all organisations who had tendered for the earlier, larger procurement. The social benefit requirements are the same as for the other graffiti removal contracts, and the contract was awarded to a different contractor in April of this year.
The contracts for construction of Bonner and Franklin schools were both awarded. with an Aboriginal participation plan to provide employment and training opportunities for Aboriginal Australians incorporated into each contract. The government has received assistance from the Construction Industry Training Council in the development of this aspect of the projects.
For these projects six trainees will be employed across the two sites, with the contractors at both schools engaging two trainees each and Shared Services Procurement and the Education and Training Directorate each engaging one trainee to work on the Bonner and Franklin projects respectively. Three trainees have been engaged so far, two within Shared Services Procurement and the education directorate, working specifically on these projects, and one on the Franklin project. It is a little regrettable that these positions are all in administrative roles. However, the registered training organisations have advised that to date they have been unable to find trainees for construction roles.
While the progress being made in implementing social procurement is pleasing, the above arrangements have been in place for only a short period of time, so it is too early for the government to have obtained any information on the social outcomes. However, the government will review the performance of the arrangements and take the lessons learned into future social procurements it undertakes.
As well as social contracts, the government has added social value through lower value social procurements, or social purchasing, including the purchase of Christmas cards, from Magpie Blah! Blah! a social enterprise established to support a man with learning disability and autism; catering services from Cafe Ink located at the Woden
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