Feds release new ICT contracts

The model contracts -- covering IT Consultancy, Hardware Acquisition and Support and Commercial off the shelf (COTS) Software Licence Acquisition and Support -- will be open for public input for two weeks ahead of the release of final versions at the end of June. They are designed to cover simple procurement such as the purchase of standard services or COTS items.

The government said moderately complex procurement tasks - as well as any simple tasks that fall outside the model contracts -- should be undertaken using the existing GITC4 -build a contract" functionality.

The Department of Finance is still working on redevelopment of the government's ICT contracting framework.

The government said other procurement issues such as intellectual property (IP) and the capping of supplier liability were being considered in separate reviews, with their findings to be incorporated into the model contracts.

Gary Nairn, the Special Minister of State, said an option being considered by the IP review was the creation of guidelines laying out how IP can be retained by the contractor or shared between the government and the contractor.

Nairn said potential categories for inclusion of the next suite of model contracts were still being determined.