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Keep up to date with conversations that are happening across the public sector that focus on procurement. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for stories to include in upcoming editions.

July 2024

In this newsletter:

• Acting General Manager, Liz Palmer
• A future direction for Procurement Graduate Programme
• Procurement platform
• Procurement Capability Community of Practice update
• We've updated the GETS manual function
• Knowledge Hour recap: managing conflicts of interest and confidentiality
• Knowledge Hour recap: Unlocking efficiency - the future of document automation with NZGP

Acting General Manager, Liz Palmer

Kia ora koutou

For those who don’t know me, I’m Liz Palmer, acting General Manager of NZGP while Laurence is on sabbatical. I’m lucky enough to have worked within NZGP for almost 10 years, most recently as the Head of Procurement Capability and Systems. Prior to joining NZGP I worked at Goldman Sachs in London for 11 years. 

I didn’t know too much about procurement before NZGP, but only 3 months in I’d drunk the cool aid – realising just how important good procurement practise is and that it can deliver so much for Aotearoa. 

I’m honoured that I get to steer the ship over the next 5 months and keep progressing the mahi underway as part of our Procurement for the Future strategy.

When I’m not working, you’ll often find me in the hills on a crazy running adventure or enjoying time with my family (including our latest addition – Badger the border collie). 

Ngā mihi,

Liz

A future direction for Procurement Graduate Programme

Over the last few months, MBIE has been working closely with the new Government to support their priorities and to make sure we’re set up to deliver on those priorities. As a result, NZGP needed to consider how we can deliver the graduate programme in the future. 

We’re delighted to announce that EPS (Expert Procurement Solutions Limited), headed by Andrew McLean, will work alongside NZGP to deliver the Procurement Graduate Programme until 2026.

Read more about the future of the Procurement Graduate Programme.

Procurement platform

We’re working on the new procurement platform which is planned to go live later this year. The platform will help to streamline work over the entire procurement cycle.   

Chris Woodbridge Senior Procurement Leader and business owner of the platform, NZGP says, “The project is multi-phased. We will move projects and work across in stages by taking users with us as they, and the platform, are ready. Our focus in Phase One is developing the platform to launch a pilot using the External Legal Services contract. We will migrate ELS panel to the new platform in the last quarter of the calendar year.” 

A series of engagements with agencies has informed us that government procurement

professionals would like the platform to cover the full procurement lifecycle and:  

• include intuitive tools to navigate the procurement system and the Rules
• provide guidance when planning procurement activities
• enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of procurement activities and
• make it easier for government buyers and suppliers to do business.

“The platform will enable the capture of high-quality data that can provide insights for government procurement. Agencies and suppliers can use these insights to make informed decisions, reduce risk and enhance the commercial outcomes of their procurement practices. We want to deliver a highly user friendly environment supporting the full range of procurement activities.” 

The procurement platform will provide:

• Guided buying features that empower buyers to find the best options to procure goods or services from contracts or open markets.
• Digital procurement including an integrated government marketplace for tendering and ordering from panels or catalogues.
• Panel and contract management including features enabling buyers to create, advertise and manage contracts.

The shared procurement platform will free up agencies’, and suppliers’, time, reduce administrative burdens and capture higher quality data. More reliable data and richer insights will improve transparency of government procurement and lead to better intelligence-led decision making and outcomes for New Zealand.

Government procurement supports so many important parts of New Zealanders’ lives. Ensuring that goods and services are provided for schools, hospitals, primary industries, exports, science and service industries, immigration, travel and transport and so on and on. Every New Zealander, in every community across the motu benefits from government procurement and with this comes responsibilities to make sure this is being done in the best way and achieving the best public value for every dollar spent.    

Procurement Capability Community of Practice update 

In May, we hosted the first Procurement Capability Community of Practice (PCCoP) hui. Feedback was positive: members of the pilot valued the interactive session with facilitation from many agency representatives. 

The PCCoP will adopt a co-design and continuous improvement approach. We will work with members to develop and refine the vision and purpose, intervention types, timings, and frequency of events/topics.

Key insights from our first hui show that there is:

• a shared understanding that we’re all making a difference and adding value to Aotearoa through our procurement practice
  
• a desire to collaborate, share best practice and grow capability and
  
• a need for secure tools that enable participation and collaboration.

These insights align with NZGP's vision of procurement workforce collaborating to create a unified government procurement system. They indicate that we’re heading in the right direction, facilitating collaboration and capability growth among procurement practitioners.

We’re currently running a pilot for the programme, but welcome expressions of interest.

If you have any questions email ProcurementCapability@mbie.govt.nz.

Procurement capability calendar  

Improving capability is a key contributing factor towards achieving NZGP’s vision. Over the past months, we have collaborated with agencies and councils across the motu to host several Demystifying Procurement workshops.

Our Demystifying Procurement workshop is an excellent opportunity to grow your procurement capability while making new connections with other practitioners. This workshop will introduce you to the procurement lifecycle and its key activities. You will learn how successful procurement benefits the government, the taxpayer, suppliers and yourself in your role. We also discuss the significance of the principles of government procurement and the Government Procurement Rules.

We’re seeking expressions of interest for upcoming in-person Demystifying Procurement workshops in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. If you're interested in participating in or hosting these workshops, we invite you to submit your interest via Hīkina.

Our Cultural Competency for Procurement course is for procurement professionals interested in learning more about how culture supports more effective social services. The award-winning course explores the practice of Tikanga-Understanding Self and Whānaungatanga - Understanding Others to support social services partnering.

We’re excited to be hosting the following in-person workshops:

• 9 July                   Demystifying Procurement - Dunedin (Otago Uni)
  
• 10 July                 Demystifying Procurement - Dunedin (Otago Uni)
  
• 15 July                 Cultural Competency for Procurement - Wellington
  
• 15 August           Cultural Competency for Procurement - Wellington

Contract management fundamentals – new course

We’re excited to announce our new course, Contract Management Fundamentals, will be available on Hīkina in July. Our interactions with the procurement system have strongly highlighted the need for this training.

We’ll let you know when the course is live. If you have any questions about the new course, email ProcurementCapability@mbie.govt.nz.

Networking opportunities

• 31 July - CIPS NZ Branches Event - Fair Play in Procurement: Unveiling the Impact of Cartels and Bid Rigging

We've updated the GETS manual responses function

When agencies receive tender responses outside Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS), we encourage you to input the details to GETS by using the manual responses function. 

In addition to improvements to the user interface, this update will make it easier to submit manual responses. Purchasers can now validate respondents’ company data against the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) and link a response to an existing GETS supplier account. 

By uploading manual responses to GETS, you will also help improve the accuracy and usefulness of the data associated with manual responses.

Mandated agencies are required to publicly advertise contract opportunities on GETS, unless an exemption applies. They also must publish a contract award notice with the name of the successful respondent. 

New Zealand Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS)

Procurement Knowledge Hour recap: managing conflicts of interest and confidentiality

Last month, Malcolm Kerr and Victoria Mataitonga, NZGP were joined by Juliet Glass and Debbie Hannifin, Inland Revenue, to discuss conflicts of interest and how to identify and manage them.

Juliet and Debbie highlighted the importance of probity and how it ensures integrity of process and decision making. Probity is the responsibility of everyone who has a role in the procurement journey, everyone’s got a role to play in upholding the probity principles.

Victoria then explained the three main types of conflicts of interest: actual, potential and perceived. When spending public money, it’s important that your agency can manage them appropriately and ensure the safety of the process and the people involved. Malcolm shared common ways that conflicts can occur in the procurement process.

To watch this and previous Knowledge Hours, head to the Hīkina video library.

Check out our website for guidance on managing actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest in a transparent manner. 

Managing conflicts of interest and confidentiality

Procurement Knowledge Hour recap: unlocking efficiency - the future of document automation with NZGP

This month, Ashleigh Robinson and Samuel Rine of NZGP showcased our new document automation offering, automated templates. Automated templates are user-friendly online forms that help you easily create procurement documents and contracts.

Ashleigh talked about how everyday hundreds of Word documents are created for government procurement, and these documents are shared and edited by hundreds more people. Using automated templates will improve the quality and consistency of documents produced, making it easier for suppliers to do business with government.

Samuel provided a demonstration of how quickly and easily you can create documents with automated templates. You can fill in pre-set fields and repeating information populates throughout the template to save valuable time. Users are guided by the tool to input specific information into the right sections. No more clumsy edits or manually removing highlighted sections and drafting notes from Word templates.

If you couldn’t attend the recent Knowledge Hour you can watch it on Hīkina.

Automated templates  

For more information on automated templates, email us.