This All-of-Government contract offers specialist consultancy advice and competitive solutions from a panel of experienced consultancy providers across 11 categories.
The consultancy services contract includes services in the following categories of:
Providers may also have additional focus areas in each category. Each category lists examples of the types of services that might be offered. This list is not exhaustive.
If you're unsure whether your project is within scope of this contract, email the Consultancy services team.
Accounting focuses on services around advisory and business accounting, along with reporting and compliance.
Quality assurance and advice, including:
More information on SafePlus is available through WorkSafe:
The Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO) has established a GCDO assurance services panel. This panel offers eligible and mandated agencies a choice of 25 providers specialising in Independent Quality Assurance and Technical Quality Assurance services for digital investments. Visit the GCDO assurance services panel page for further information.
GCDO assurance services panel (sub-panel)
Services in this category include:
Advisory services on business change processes and methodologies, to ensure organisational change is successfully planned and executed.
This category includes advice on:
Human resource (HR) consultants advise organisations or agencies on the management and development of their workforce. Services in this category include:
Marketing consultants focus on developing strategies to successfully promote, sell and distribute goods and/or services to targeted groups of end users.
Public relations consultancy services means helping your organisation to manage the flow of information between you and the public.
Services in this category include:
Operations management includes services relating to business process and quality improvement plans, through reviews of operating models and their design.
Risk advisory services relate to risk identification, assessment and management, and security and safety systems.
For security risks in technology environments, there’s a specific sub-panel of this contract, called ‘Protective security services.’ Services from this sub-panel help agencies to better manage business risks and assure continuity of service delivery.
Protective security services panel (sub-panel)
A policy consultancy helps agencies with developing and evaluating public policy initiatives in the New Zealand context. Research and development (R&D) includes investigative activities.
Services in this category include:
Services in this category give advice and assistance on:
Taxation includes advisory services on:
Consultants are covered by this contract.
Contractors are out of scope and are covered by the All-of-Government Talent acquisition services contract instead.
Talent acquisition services contract
The difference between contractors and consultants can be hard to define. A contractor is hired directly to perform duties that would normally be provided by an existing staff member. They’re under the direct supervision of the agency that hired them, and that agency carries any risk associated with their work.
By contrast, a consultant provides a service that’s linked to a defined outcome, with agreed milestones, and is supervised by the consultancy organisation. The consultant, or the company from which they come, is ultimately responsible for ensuring the quality and timeliness of their work.
For more help in telling the difference between a contractor and a consultant and deciding which contract you should use, read this guideline document:
How to tell the difference between a Consultant and Contractor.
Property and construction consultancy services are not covered by this contract, and instead have their own specific contracts:
Each subcategory of services has a range of providers to choose from. Some providers work across multiple subcategories.
To use this contract, you first have to join. There’s more information on the joining process in this section below:
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Once you’ve joined, you’ll need to determine your requirements.
Then, you can directly source a provider from the panel, or shortlist providers before selection.
Once you’ve chosen a provider, use the Consultancy Services Order (CSO) template to record the terms agreed. There might be other documentation (like briefs and variations) that you can attach as appendices to the CSO. The CSO template is in the Contract documents section at the top of this page.
More detail on the selection process, briefing, and due diligence is on the Using the consultancy services contract page.
Agencies who participate in the consultancy services contract don't need to go through a full procurement process of their own, which saves time, effort and cost.
NZGP has secured maximum and standard All-of-Government daily rates, per job level of consultant per provider.
The maximum is a fixed rate, and should not be exceeded. However, the standard rate is merely indicative and should not be considered a minimum.
Agencies are strongly encouraged to negotiate rates below the standard rate, recognising the uniqueness of each engagement. A full outline of the rates range, (including maximum and standard daily rates), is available on the providers page to help agencies identify suitable providers. Providers are expected to charge the standard daily rate unless there is a justifiable reason to charge an amount up to the maximum rate.
Most AoG contracts include an administration fee. This fee is a simple, effective and transparent way of recovering the cost of developing, sourcing, implementing and managing AoG contracts.
For the consultancy services contract, an administration fee of 1% is applicable on Tier 1 and Tier 2 provider services. Engagement of Tier 3 providers will not incur an administration fee. The provider adds the administration fee as an additional cost at the time of invoicing.
Providers collect the administration fee and pass it on to MBIE - agencies don't need to make any payments to MBIE.
To purchase consultancy services using this contract, your agency or school first needs to join.
If this is the first All-of-Government (AoG) contract your agency or school is joining, you’ll need to:
Find more detail on these three steps at Joining AoG contracts.
Once you have completed this process, or if you’ve joined AoG contracts before, the next step is to read the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the consultancy services contract.
If your agency agrees to the terms of the MoU, sign and submit the online joining form. The MoU and joining form are in the Joining documents section below. You need an agency login to access it.
Once we receive your joining form, we’ll be in touch to confirm that your agency or school has been approved to participate in this contract.
You can then purchase consultancy services using this contract.
This section contains information which may be commercially sensitive and should not be shared publicly.
To view this content, you must be logged in, approved for secure content access, and your agency must be signed up to the contract.
For assistance, please contact nzgppsystems@mbie.govt.nz
In both December 2017 and December 2020 a refresh was undertaken for all 11 sub-categories and new providers added. The latest refresh closed 30 June 2021.
To be able to purchase from this contract agencies and schools first need to join.
Each party has responsibilities they must meet as part of every AoG contract.