Copy of contract from contract award notice DICT/690368
Dear NSW Office of State Revenue,
I make an informal request for a copy of the contract (less confidential information) with Computershare Communication Services Pty Limited for “Outbound Customer Correspondence Management Contract”. The eTendering Contract Award Notice ID is DICT/690368.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Gross
Dear Alexander
Thank you for your request to access information held by the Department of Customer Service (which includes Revenue NSW). I confirm we have received and are reviewing your request, and I am aiming to provide you with an update within the next 5 working days.
Regards
Hannah Stephenson
Senior Advisor | Government and Executive Support Services
Department of Customer Service
T (02) 9219 3700 E [email address]
Dear Alexander
I am writing with an update on your informal request to access information
held by the Department of Customer Service (DCS), which includes Revenue
NSW, which we received on 26 September 2023.
In your request you asked for:
I make an informal request for a copy of the contract (less confidential
information) with Computershare Communication Services Pty Limited for
“Outbound Customer Correspondence Management Contract”. The eTendering
Contract Award Notice ID is DICT/690368.
DCS is unable to process this as an informal request under the Government
Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA Act). This is because there
are likely to be several overring public interest considerations against
disclosure of the information.
There may, however, be some information we can provide to you informally
without disclosing the full contract, for example by creating a new
record. If you are interested in this option, it would assist if you could
provide more detail about what specifically about this contract you would
like to know.
Alternatively, if you do still wish to obtain a copy of the full contract,
you will need to submit a formal access application under the GIPA Act.
Details of how to do so are available on our website at:
[1]https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-a....
I’d be happy to discuss this with you further if that would assist –
please reach out to me via the below.
Thanks
Hannah Stephenson
Senior Advisor | Government and Executive Support Services
Office of the Chief Operating Officer
Corporate Services
T (02) 9219 3700 E [2][email address]
[3]nsw.gov.au
McKell Building
2-24 Rawson Place
Sydney NSW 2000
[4]NSW Government logo with Department of Customer Service
descriptor
[5]Facebook icon [6]Twitter icon [7]YouTube icon [8]LinkedIn icon
I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay respects to
Elders past and present. I also acknowledge all the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander staff working with NSW Government at this time.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-a...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.nsw.gov.au/
5. https://www.facebook.com/NSWGovernment
6. https://twitter.com/nswcustomer
7. https://www.youtube.com/user/nswgovernment
8. https://www.linkedin.com/company/nswcust...
Dear Hannah,
Would you mind reviewing Division 5 of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 and reconsider your refusal?
The eTendering website indicates the contract and its provisions are not withheld from disclosure under the exemption provisions of the GIPA Act. Regardless of the formal or informal nature of my request, you are required by law to provide this contract under s31 and it should already be available online in compliance thereof.
Thanks
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Gross
Hi Alexander
Please refer to my advice yesterday - i.e. if you would like to request a copy of the contract, you will need to submit a formal GIPA application. However, as I explained yesterday, we can likely provide you some information informally - but it would be helpful if you could explain what in particular you are most interested in regarding this contract.
I look forward to hearing from you further regarding either of these 2 options.
Regards
Hannah Stephenson
Senior Advisor | Government and Executive Support Services
Department of Customer Service
T (02) 9219 3700 E [email address]
Dear Hannah,
Please refer to my email of yesterday. DCS is legally required to make this contract available to the public, regardless of my request.
Contract "Customer Service / Outbound Customer Correspondence Management Contract - DICT/690368" is a contract entered into by Revenue NSW. The NSW Government eTendering website indicates that it is a contract of $7.48m whose evaluation criteria were "Direct negotiation". The eTendering entry identifies that no information is to be withheld in respect of this contract.
Part 3, Division 5 of the GIPA:
s29: The proposed contract is at least a class 1 contract because it is greater than $150,000. s30 is probably satisfied by the entry on eTendering
s30: The contract is at least a class 2 because it is substantially negotiated with the successful tenderer per s30(1)(b). s30 places additional details to be entered into the register which I am not totally sure has actually been done (eg no cost-benefit analysis is present).
s31: The contract is a class 3 because it is a class 2 and exceeds $5m.
Part 3, Division 5 is not predicated on formal or formal GIPA requests. Your agency is already in breach of the GIPA by not publishing the contract. I suggest you escalate this to seek better and further advice.
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Gross
Hi Alexander
As you kindly requested, I sought an update from our Corporate Procurement team and they advise as follows.
The Department of Customer Service (DCS) discloses details of all contracts above $150,000 as per the requirements of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009. The 'accessing information' pages of the DCS website includes a link to the eTendering website, where you can find the DCS register of government contracts. On eTendering, you can search the Contracts Register by agency (and other keywords/filters): https://www.tenders.nsw.gov.au/?event=pu...
Copies of contracts are kept within the internal central contract register, maintained by DCS's Corporate Procurement team. Currently DCS does not publish copies of class 3 contracts. However, DCS is currently working to establish a process to publish all current class 3 contracts externally by 31 December 2023.
If you wish to proceed with the informal or formal access application as per my previous advice, then you can contact our team at [OSR request email]. Otherwise all further correspondence will be filed without a response.
Regards
Hannah Stephenson
Senior Advisor | Government and Executive Support Services
Department of Customer Service
T (02) 9219 3700 E [email address]
Dear GIPA-DCS,
So just to clarify, your agency is currently working toward complying with Part 3, Division 5 of the GIPA Act, and haven’t yet complied with s35 of the GIPA Act? These requirements have only been around since the Act was passed in June 2009, so I can see how they’ve caught you off guard.
Flick me a copy of the contract by email when you can. I simply cannot wait for when your agency decides to finally comply with a 14 year old law.
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Gross
Dear Alexander
The contract you had requested can now be accessed via our website, at: https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-a...
As advised on 9 October, DCS continues to work through and publish all class 3 contracts by year's end.
Regards
Hannah Stephenson
Senior Advisor | Government and Executive Support Services
Department of Customer Service
T (02) 9219 3700 E [email address]
Dear GIPA-DCS,
Thanks for your provision of the contract. It is a delightful read.
Do you have any published s32(2) reasons for the blacked out sections at pages 46, 47, 48, 49, 53, 54, 55, 56 and 58?
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Gross
Dear Alexander
We have received your enquiry and will contact you as soon as there is an update on this request.
GIPA team
Department of Customer Service
T (02) 9219 3700 E [email address]
Dear Alexander
In response to your query, received on 27 October, please refer to the 'Register of government contracts' page of the DCS website, where it states that 'Parts of the contract which remain commercial-in-confidence have been removed, in keeping with GIPA requirements.'
For additional clarity, the Procurement team have confirmed that the redactions on the pages you have specified relate to the commercial-in-confidence provisions of the contract. Therefore, this would be in line with section 32(1)(a) of the GIPA Act. For more information about what this means, see the definition provided in the GIPA Act under Schedule 4, Clause 1 i.e.:
commercial-in-confidence provisions of a contract means any provisions of the contract that disclose-
(a) the contractor's financing arrangements, or
(b) the contractor's cost structure or profit margins, or
(c) the contractor's full base case financial model, or
(d) any intellectual property in which the contractor has an interest, or
(e) any matter the disclosure of which would place the contractor at a substantial commercial disadvantage in relation to other contractors or potential contractors, whether at present or in the future.
Regards
GIPA team
Department of Customer Service
T (02) 9219 3700 E [email address]