To become a supplier to government, you need to know what opportunities are available and how to engage with government buyers
New Zealand government spends approximately $51.5 billion, around 20% of GDP, procuring a wide range of goods and services from third party suppliers.
Agencies should post planned procurement as a future procurement opportunity (FPO) on GETS. This gives suppliers early notice of a planned procurement. Suppliers may follow an FPO and will receive notifications when a related RFx is released on GETS. FPOs are subject to revision or cancellation so are not a commitment by Government to purchase the described goods or service. Don’t contact agencies regarding FPO’s; they’ll let you know more as the procurement progresses.
The Principles of Government Procurement, the Government Procurement Rules and good practice guidance provide a framework to help agencies achieve better procurement outcomes.
Government agencies approach the market on an on-going basis. There are lots of different ways buyers might approach suppliers, including:
Ways buyers might approach the market
Generally, large contracts are advertised on GETS (the Government Electronic Tenders Service). Suppliers need to register for GETS using RealMe to access listings. For smaller contracts, agencies may go directly to suppliers they already know.
Suppliers then submit proposals for the project, the agency evaluates them and creates a shortlist. Sometimes suppliers will be asked to present to the evaluation team to discuss their proposal. After final evaluation, the agency awards the contract to the successful supplier.
If your proposal is accepted, there might be further negotiation around what you'll be expected to deliver, and the price.
Suppliers can tender for:
Collaborative contracts are intended to help streamline government procurement and make things easier for both agencies and suppliers.
There are three types of collaborative contracts commonly used by government in New Zealand:
Types of collaborative contracts
You can apply to be a supplier to a collaborative contract when the contract returns to market.
New or renewing collaborative contracts will be advertised on GETS. You apply following the RFx process, and if successful, might be the only supplier or one of a panel of suppliers that agencies can choose to use.
If you're part of a panel of suppliers on a collaborative contract, you can be contracted directly to provide goods or services to any government agency that has signed up to the contract. Sometimes an agency might run a secondary procurement process, and invite some or all suppliers on the panel to tender for a specific requirement.
The guidance provides information for contractors and suppliers to government organisations to build their own personnel security capability. This helps to mitigate the risk of workers (insiders) exploiting their legitimate access to an organisation’s assets for unauthorised purposes.
Managing contractors - Protective Security Requirements (PSR)
Managing insider risk - Protective Security Requirements (PSR)
Supply chain security - Protective Security Requirements (PSR)