Strategy Development and Procurement Support

The Planning Group within Department of Local Government, Infrastructure and Planning (DILGP), contributes to policy and legislation as well as delivers reform for planning and development assessment throughout Queensland. Upon experiencing delays and difficulties coordinating procurement-related activities, Charles Kendall Australia (CKA) was requested to provide the necessary support to the Planning Group.

The Challenge

From time to time it is necessary for the Planning Group to engage external suppliers for specialist advice or services that augment in-house capabilities and otherwise ensure appropriate internal resource utilisation, particularly at times of peak activity.

However, the nature of work by the Planning Group is such that requirements for external support are ad hoc and therefore attended to reactively. Accordingly, it has been challenging to introduce an organised, coordinated approach to procurement.

CKA was engaged to respond to two key requirements:

procure a panel of planning services providers for ongoing use by the Planning Group; and
develop a strategy to aid procurement activities undertaken in future.

Our Approach

In consideration of the required timeframes, CKA developed a comprehensive schedule of activities that allowed effective delivery of the work and ensured that the needs of the Planning Group could be met.

CKA facilitated the development of requirements and drafted a comprehensive specification, which was critical to seeking proposals and establishing a valuable panel of service providers to support the Planning Group. CKA also drafted full tender documentation, administered the tender process, coordinated evaluation activities, negotiated contracts, and implemented contracts with successful suppliers. In order to facilitate contract administration, a comprehensive procedure was developed and key staff were trained in the use of the procedure and all related documents and templates.

Further, CKA developed a thorough and robust sourcing strategy for future procurement activities by the Planning Group. The strategy consolidates data from various sources and synthesises inputs to offer options and provide directions that aid the process of engaging external parties.

Outcomes

14 new contracts offering a comprehensive range of services in numerous specialist fields related to planning, property economics, and geographic information systems.
A complete procedure, inclusive of one page summary cheat sheet, to guide staff when utilising the new contracts.
A comprehensive sourcing strategy that also addressed further guidance with respect to opportunities for improvement of the procurement practices.