Chapter 2: Alignment to policy, strategies and legislation
An assessment of whether the single seller arrangements (SSAs) align to the rules and support government’s intended direction.
Chapter overview
The review found the SSA model aligns with key related policies and strategies, with opportunities to further evolve how these are applied in practice. Given the ever-evolving policy landscape, it is important to consider SSA alignment as an ongoing activity to ensure they are kept up to date as new policies are introduced or changed.
The alignment of the SSAs to existing and emerging policy, strategies and key legislation was considered across four key policy dimensions: procurement and contracts, cyber and security, digital and investment, and the broader ecosystem.
In particular, the review identified the following improvement opportunities:
- Further value can be obtained in existing policies by negotiating adoption expectations in the head agreement, rather than devolving this responsibility to the buyer’s contract (e.g. CAIP Plans).
- Consider how to mitigate unintended market consequences in the existing Contract Limits and Review Policy to address unintended market outcomes.
- Define data and digital sovereignty with consideration of localisation requirements, and assess the technology landscape to identify technology necessitating stronger cyber and security requirements.
- Distinguish more clearly whole of Australian Government digital contracts from Coordinated Procurements within the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs).