AoG contracts off to school

GPS is currently promoting the AoGcontracts to schools, including use of the Government’s eMarketplace (www.emarketplace.govt.nz) as the preferred channel for shopping, contact with suppliers and monitoring and managing expenditure.

Full Article - AoG contracts off to school

Most state schools now have the opportunity to save money by purchasing office consumables, computers, printers and passenger vehicles through new All-of-Government (AoG) contracts.

As part of the Government’s Procurement Reform Programme, AoG contracts involve progressively negotiating single-supply agreements between the Crown and approved suppliers for selected goods and services.

From 17 May all fully or partially integrated state schools have the option to join any or all of these fantastic AoG contracts.

“By harnessing the collective buying power of over 200 state sector agencies and now 2,500 schools, government has positioned itself as a ‘customer of choice’ and is able to achieve substantial cost savings. The AoG contracting approach has wider benefits to agencies, suppliers and, ultimately, the New Zealand taxpayer,” says John Ivil, Manager AoG Contracts with the Ministry of Economic Development.

“The bulk of savings are retained by agencies and schools, to be redirected to other priorities. A small portion (1.5%) returns to MED to fund the ongoing reform – including the establishment of additional AoG contracts. Work has already commenced on adding contracts in the areas of external legal services, air travel, travel management services, electricity and energy management services.”

The initial four contracts, for the supply of office consumables, computers, print devices, and vehicles, were established in mid-2010 and most Government agencies have migrated over to them since then.

Access to these preferential government rates comes with some special conditions: a non-disclosure agreement is required to view the catalogues; the contracts are only available for schools to purchase items to be used in the classroom and running the school, not on-sold to pupils; and schools must commit to purchase only from the panel of suppliers during the duration of the contract (generally until 2013) - and in the case of office consumables, from only one of the two suppliers in this category.

Purchasing from these contracts is simplified by using the Government’s online eMarketplace (www.emarketplace.govt.nz) which lets schools shop from the catalogues, contact suppliers and even monitor and manage expenditure.

The AoG contracts will be made available to schools in a staged approach to ensure a smooth transition for participants. The contracts for vehicles, print devices and office consumables are open from 17 May, with desktop/laptop computer contracts available from 1 July 2011. Schools are invited to check out the various catalogues and pricing before deciding whether to join one or more of these contracts.

Schools interested in browsing the various catalogues can do so from 17 May, by simply registering at www.emarketplace.govt.nz and completing a non-disclosure agreement. This agreement does not commit you to any purchase - it simply protects the commercial sensitivity of the pricing.

The initial registration requires a ‘.school’ email address, some basic contact details and an indication of the categories you’re interested in. Schools will also be asked to input an estimate of their current spend/volume for each category.

eMarketplace logon details will then be emailed to you together with instructions about the process for getting access only to view the catalogues. Schools happy with the pricing and keen to sign up to purchase can then do this via eMarketplace.

For further information go to www.emarketplace.govt.nz