Companies wishing to tender for projects within the South Australian Government, will soon be required to have a minimum weighting of 15 per cent for ‘local jobs’ within tender evaluations for contracts worth more than $220,000.
Currently the minimum weighting is set at five to 10 per cent depending on the project. The changes will come into effect on November 6.
South Australia-based Blue Crystal Solutions, managing director, Vito Rinaldi, said the changes meant his company would now be able to partner and compete more effectively with international and interstate organisations for South Australian Government work.
Blue Crystal has about 35 staff and provides managed services, application and database management as well as Cloud services.
“It’s a boost for our business,” he said. “This will help increase the amount of work we do with the South Australian Government.”
South Australian treasurer, Tom Koutsantonis, said when tendering for State Government work - whether it is a major infrastructure project or providing goods or services - companies are required to cover a range of factors within their bid including capability, cost and the economic benefit from local jobs.
“Under these changes to our Industry Participation Policy, the economic benefit from local jobs will now make up 15 per cent of tender evaluations – or 20 per cent of tender evaluations if the project is part of our $93 million infrastructure spend in northern Adelaide,” he said. “By increasing the ‘local jobs’ weighting, this gives companies who support South Australian workers an advantage when bidding for Government work.
“It will encourage tenderers to partner with local sub-contractors and suppliers to boost their chances of success. The State Government is taking these steps to ensure the power of its $3 billion annual procurement drives greater employment creation and supports local jobs and innovation.”
