Tuesday – 30 October 2024 – 11:10am
Panel Discussion: Defining and Clarifying Thresholds in the Tendering Process
Councils staff are asked to adhere to the Local Government Act and Local Government (General) Regulation 2021 (NSW), Part 7 Tendering. And everyone knows the threshold amount, but there are debates happening in meeting rooms all the time. When does the threshold take effect? Is it for a single purchase, sourced through a Request for tender? Or, is it for the accumulative value spent with on supplier over several years, and how many years? Or is it for the total spend of a type of goods over a specific time period? Let’s hear from our panel and get the discussion going.
Speakers
Joshua Same
Partner @ Maddocks
Joshua is a highly experienced environmental and planning lawyer who specialises in advising on advising public and private sector clients on environmental and planning law matters.
Joshua has a particular interest in facilitating complex procurement processes, with a focus on local government. This includes the drafting of procurement documentation and advising local councils, Government departments and agencies on probity and process issues. He also advises clients on environmental planning and approval process, liabilities under environmental legislation and environmental incidents, contaminated land, compulsory acquisition, environmental auditing, and statutory processes – with particular experience advising on and documenting infrastructure and redevelopment projects with environmental or planning law drivers.
Joshua is Maddocks’ NSW Local Government sector leader and is the co-author of Navigating the Tender Process – Tips and Traps for NSW Councils and has presented at a number of workshops on the same. Joshua is also recommended in Legal 500 Asia Pacific guide for 2023 in the area of Environment & Planning.
Sarah Mullins
Partner @ O’Connor Marsden & Associates Pty Ltd
Sarah Mullins is a leading probity specialist and Partner at OCM, where she leads Probity Services for OCM’s Local Government clients and serves as the National Quality Assurance partner for Probity. With over 20 years of experience in probity, corruption prevention, and ethics, Sarah excels in local government procurement and probity, grants management, and conflict of interest management. A flexible problem solver, she effectively manages various stakeholders to achieve complex goals. Sarah was also a key contributor to the successful implementation of OCM’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan.
Sarah’s experience across all levels of government, and her previous employment at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, combines both theoretical knowledge and practical insights, making her a valuable contributor to panel discussions. She is committed to fostering informed dialogue and offering actionable solutions for councils, with a particular focus on tendering processes and threshold determinations, and legislative considerations under the Local Government Act and associated Regulation.