Parliament’s audit committee has called for sweeping changes to the rules governing the federal government’s $80 billion of annual procurements, warning the current system is opaque and some aspects now an “uncompetitive rort”.
Among the bipartisan committee’s recommendations are an overhaul of panel buying to ensure public servants can no longer approach only one pre-approved supplier, removing the default exemption of corporate Commonwealth entities from procurement rules, and the re-professionalisation of a procurement professional stream.
The Industry department, Digital Transformation Agency and Home Affairs are criticised in the report, which recommends further scrutiny of how the entities respond to its findings.
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