environmental, social, economic or cultural. Under Rule 38, Notices of Procurement must describe any Broader Outcomes that a supplier is expected to deliver or an agency is seeking to achieve and under Rule 46 an agency must award a contract to the supplier that has either offered the best public value, including Broader Outcomes, over the whole of life of the goods, services or works, or if price is the only criterion the lowest price. • Secondly and linked to the above, Cabinet and Ministers may now designate contracts against a specific priority outcome. In such circumstances, agencies must include requirements in their procurement process relating to the relevant priority outcome/s. To give effect to these priority outcomes, agencies must conduct sufficient monitoring of designated contracts to ensure suppliers’ contractual commitments are actually delivered and reported on. Four initial priority outcomes, and designations, have been mandated as follows:
• Next are the amendments to the ‘Principles of Government Procurement’ and the introduction of the ‘Government Procurement Charter’ (discussed further below). Agencies will be required to have policies in place, and to ensure that their staff are trained in and their procurement practices reflect, the Principles and the Charter. The secondary procurement benefits are embedded throughout the Principles and the Charter and should (and are actually required to) therefore be forefront of mind in agencies’ procurement decisions and activities.
• Finally, through amendments to Rule 3, agencies are given comfort that awarding a contract to a New Zealand supplier presenting public value, including Broader Outcomes, does not cut across discrimination provisions for international competition. Agencies are now empowered to “choose local”. Theme Two: setting clear Government expectations for ethical and sustainable procurement behaviour including the supply chain The second notable addition to the Rules is the