Council committed to supporting local suppliers

A temporary change to Toowoomba Regional Council’s (TRC) Procurement Policy, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been made permanent following encouraging local spending throughout the Region.

Responding to the challenges of a global pandemic, TRC Deputy Mayor and Finance and Business Strategy Committee Chair Cr Geoff McDonald said Council originally changed its policy to help local suppliers get back on their feet.

“In May 2020 we agreed to amend the Procurement Policy to assist local suppliers wherever possible with the way we procure,” Cr McDonald said.

“This was seen as a provisional measure to provide immediate support to our business community, with a review to take place at the end of last year.

“We’ve now undertaken this review and the results have been extremely encouraging with our local spend above 50% and close to our target of 60%, which is more than double that of the State Government expenditure with Queensland suppliers.

“Over the course of the financial year to date, this equates to $80 million which has been kept within our community. We’re also committed to paying local suppliers within 14 days of the date of invoice, a significant improvement from 30 days end of month pre-COVID.

“These amendments have resulted in increased support to, and engagement of, local suppliers for Council operations.

“In light of these results, we’ve made a decision to make this change permanent as we are focused on keeping money within the Toowoomba Region.”

As part of the changes to the Procurement Policy, Council will continue to: • Seek quotes from only local suppliers for procurement under $200,000 (where possible) • Give local suppliers an additional 10% price variance for purchases up to $50,000 • Give local suppliers an additional 5% price variance for purchases greater than $50,000 but less than $200,000 • Will continue to follow the public tender or contractual arrangement exceptions contained within Local Government Regulation 2012 (Regulation) s223 to s235 for procurement with an expected value greater than $200,000.

“In addition to this, Council will give a further 2% price advantage to local suppliers in regional areas (all areas inside the Toowoomba Region boundary that are outside of the Toowoomba City, i.e. postcode 4350) for anything up to $200,000,” Cr McDonald said.

“Effectively, this means that if a local supplier provides a quote for $44,000 and we receive another quote from outside the Region for $40,000, then we’ll be able to go with the local supplier thanks to the changes in our policy.

“The policy will also include further measures on how to engage local suppliers during the quotation and tender processes.

For more information contact Council on 131 872.