Inside the committee quietly rewriting procurement oversight
A select committee has spent four sittings on amendments that would change who reviews federal contracts above the disclosure threshold.
Four sittings of a parliamentary select committee have produced a set of amendments that would change the review architecture for federal procurement.
The headline change raises the disclosure threshold. Contracts below the new figure would no longer require the same tabling of documentation, a shift the committee describes as proportionate and critics describe as a widened blind spot.
A second change reassigns first-instance review. Where a departmental panel currently reviews awards, the amendments would route review through a central unit with a broader remit and a smaller staff.
Committee transcripts show sustained questioning from two members about capacity. The unit would take on a substantially larger caseload without a corresponding increase in establishment posts.
Officials appearing before the committee argued that consolidation improves consistency and that the current departmental panels produce divergent outcomes on similar facts.
The amendments have not been tabled in the chamber. On the committee's own timetable they would come before the house in the current session.
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