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Impending changes to government contracting aim to address ambiguities in contractor payments and improve transparency of services provided.
Matt Perkins, director of delivery services at NZ Government Procurement, a division of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, told Reseller News a range of engagements were undertaken before a request for proposals was released earlier this month.
This included a request for information in March and one-on-one meetings with government agencies to understand current contractual challenges.
“Generally, we received feedback about ambiguity in payment structure and lack of transparency for services provided and paid for,” Perkins said.
As reported yesterday, the proposed changes are stirring a lively debate, with some parties describing them as the “assassination” of contractor recruitment in New Zealand and others describing some existing contractor structures as a “rort” that needed fixing.
“Industry research and feedback from experts across government agencies and the recruitment sector, given as part of the development of this proposal, highlighted that there are multiple pricing models used globally, including percentage of salary, retained search, fix fee recruitment, and hourly billed recruitment.”
Credit: Supplied A fixed fee model was the simplest, most transparent pricing model for the end-user to understand and apply when purchasing services for placing candidates, Perkins said.
“A fixed fee approach better recognises value of services delivered for dollars paid,” he said. “It also creates transparency between services provided and prices paid, and is therefore the most appropriate model to remove ambiguity for contracting parties.
It was now up to individual suppliers to set their fixed fee through the current tender process.
“The current generation of the contract was established in 2017, and we recognise that across our range of improvements, there will be changes for the sector [and] suppliers,” Perkins said.
“NZGP has been and continues to work to support suppliers’ understanding of the proposed new generation contract through supplier briefings and updates via our regular communication channels.”
The current all-of-government External Recruitment Services contract expires on 19 September 2023, and NZ Government Procurement was working to establish a new one before then.
“We intend to have a new solution in place by March 2023,” Perkins said.
The current tender closes on 2 September, and NZ Government Procurement would issue further updates on its progress “in due course”.
The current contract allows participating agencies to access any of the 40 panel providers for a broad range of recruitment services such as permanent, temporary, and contractor placement types, roles in common administration and corporate, common IT jobs such as network engineers, ICT project managers and database administrators and services for payroll-only contractors.
As well as creating simpler and more transparent pricing and service structures, NZGP’s objectives for the new contract, which is to be renamed to the Talent Acquisition Services, or TAS, are to ensure panel providers are able to meet future agency requirements over the next ten years, including broader outcomes.
The new structure would also set reporting expectations on carbon emissions, and supplier and candidate diversity, improving and increasing public value by improving access to regional businesses, including Māori and Pasifika businesses.
