Managing the Requirements for Disclosing Private Sector Contracts
Overview
Financial Reporting Direction – FRD12A Disclosure of Major Contracts under the Financial Management Act 1994, requires agencies to publicly disclose summary details of contracts over $100 000 and make public the full text of all contracts over $10 million. A statement about private sector contracts is also required within annual reports. Only material which falls within exemptions of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 may be excluded, for example genuinely confidential business information or trade secrets.
We examined whether contract disclosure requirements had been complied with in three departments and also examined the monitoring role of the Victorian Government Purchasing Board and the completeness and accuracy of the data maintained by all departments on the Contract Publishing System (CPS).
The audit concluded that departments are generally complying with the requirement to disclose summary details of contracts above $100 000 on the CPS. The incidence of non-compliance was low and the reasons for non-compliance do not point to systemic breakdown of controls.
However, levels of non-compliance with the requirement to publish the text of contracts where they exceed $10 million are higher, and reflect systemic breakdowns in disclosure and reporting controls that diminish transparency.