Federal government plans changes to procurement of legal services

The federal government has announced its procurement of legal services this week, stating that it plans to introduce sweeping changes to the ways its agencies and departments procure external legal services in the next six months.

The new reforms will be introduced in four stages. They will include creating a whole-of-government multi-use list of law firm and barrister advisers and expert panels in specialist areas: common reporting requirements for agencies; training programs to improve informed purchasing skills; and a mechanism to share purchasing data.

The changes follow recent reviews into inefficient government procurement processes and a round-table meeting last month between federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland, agencies, private firms and industry groups.

McClelland said in a speech in Canberra this week that it was important to keep up momentum “to ensure we achieve not only greater efficiencies and value for money, which the taxpayer expects, but also enhanced levels of professionalism and co-ordination in the delivery of commonwealth legal services”.

A report by Lateral Economics, released last month, proposed reducing about 72 agency-specific panels to about 10 subject-area panels and a multi-use list.

This would substantially strengthen the government’s buying power, cut legal fees and help small firms win government work, the report said.

Lateral found the current agency-specific panel system fragmented the commonwealth’s ability to negotiate discounts, reduced the ability of agencies to learn from each other in order to become more informed purchasers, and created barriers for smaller firms.

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