Procurement exemptions

If your school-led property procurement has a contract value of $100,000 (excluding GST) or more, you must use the open tender method to approach the market. However, in some circumstances you can apply for an exemption to use a closed tender or direct source process instead.

These circumstances are:

• an emergency resulting in injury or critical damage to property or infrastructure. This could be a major weather event, or a situation with high risk of harm to students or staff – for example, urgent fencing for a student’s safety
• if an open tender process was advertised within the last 12 months and no supplier met the conditions
• there’s only 1 supplier in the market – for example, when buying intellectual property rights, technical reasons, or a work of art
• a judicial court order
• when new requirements arise during a project and it would be very difficult or expensive to change supplier
• if a prototype or pilot is purchased for research, experiment, study, or original development
• goods purchased on a commodity market
• when exceptionally advantageous conditions apply that are only available for a very short time
• if a contract is awarded to the winner of a design contest.