With a record number of attendees on both days, the LGP Sydney Procurement and Engineering Network events were held on the 26th and 27th of July.
Over 80 staff from 22 different Councils met at the Grace Hotel for the first day of the Sydney double header. Luke Kenny, CEO @ LGP was our MC, and set the tone for the well-received and informative day.
External speakers included Angela Taljaard from the ACCC, who highlighted risks in procurement relating to cartel activity, which included bid rigging. It was a well-timed reminder to keep an eye out for suspicious activity and how to report it. This topic was balanced out by an update from Dr James Cockayne of the NSW Anti-Slavery Commission, this developing area included notification of the Commissioner’s guidance on reasonable steps which will be published in August-September 2023.
The theme of risk continued with informative talks from LGP speakers, including Candice Galvez and Jerram Fairclough, presenting on assessing risks & managing compliance in Local Government. Other risk topics included supply chain risks and mitigation, mitigating risks, insurance requirements and tenders.
LGP took time during the day to thank and acknowledge a long-term colleague, friend, and supporter of LGP Bruce Renneberg of Sutherland Shire Council. After 36 distinguished years, Bruce finally decided to hang up his boots, further information of his career can be found featured in our Newsletter.
On day two LGP welcomed twenty-seven different Councils from the Engineering stream, hosted by Bronwyn Challis Head of Business Development and Northern Region BDM. Early in the day Michael O’Leary, Manager Civil Operations at Sutherland Shire Council presented a timely case study on its open water coastal management program, involving the emergency protection works at North Cronulla beach. LGP would also like to thank William Wijaya, Public Place Coordinator for his contribution to the LGP420 – Interview with a Council hosted by Jerram Fairclough, BDM Western Region at LGP.
The questions all day came thick and first right through to the Q&A Panel discussion where Modern Slavery and Indigenous procurement was raised, LGP has a well-established set of tools for Modern Slavery and is working on a framework for Indigenous Procurement which will be released towards the end of 2023.
Where to next……Ewe guessed it, Goulburn followed by Port Macquarie.
More than the big Merino, Goulburn during 2022 opened a State-of-the-art 400 seat performing arts centre, completed a new Aquatic & Leisure centre and are working towards the completion of 14 kilometres of river walkways.
We are pleased to have Aaron Johansson, CEO of Goulburn Mulwaree Council opening the day, a local Council case study followed by a full day agenda of key topics. This can be viewed along with registration, which can be completed by clicking on the following link:
Networking Events – Local Government Procurement (lgp.org.au)