MEDIA RELEASE
22 August 2022
Procurement Australia recognises outstanding procurement achievements at 2022 Awards
Procurement Australia is proud to announce the winners of its 2022 Excellence Awards at the 15th Annual Procurement Australia Conference in Melbourne. After a two-year COVID-related hiatus, one of the nation’s leading procurement solutions partner once again acknowledged outstanding achievements in the procurement and supply chain community.
Each of the Excellence Awards are chosen by members of the Procurement Australia community. Procurement Australia Chair, Mr Ken McNamara announced the winners, saying: “It’s a pleasure to be able to present these awards to the hard-working and highly-regarded members of the procurement industry. Our goal with these awards is to acknowledge and celebrate procurement industry practitioners and suppliers who are going above and beyond to procure a better world for all of us. We’re thrilled to return to present these awards in person once more. ”
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The 2022 Procurement Australia Award winners are:
Ben McLaughlin, Previously working at Colac Otway Shire Council, who won the Jacinta Bartlett Award for Individual Excellence in Procurement sponsored by CIPS
Open to all senior individuals across Australia, the award is inspired by Jacinta Bartlett, a highly respected Victorian local government procurement professional who tragically lost her life in the Black Saturday bushfires. This award is given to acknowledge her professionalism and commitment. Judges seek an individual who has consistently enhanced the way in which their organisation has procured goods and services, delivered beyond expectation, and ensured the demands of current legislation are satisfied.
Having joined Colac Otway Shire (COS) Council two years ago, Ben has made significant improvements in the way the council conducts its procurement. Prior to joining COS Council, procurement was rated below the sector average with notable gaps across the procurement framework. In a short period of time, Ben has used his creativity and innovative thinking to become a leading local government procurement practitioner.
Ben has been instrumental in progressing COS Council’s procurement maturity. He has worked to uncover opportunities for greater procurement collaboration across Victoria’s councils, developed reports and protocols to increase compliance by over 50% in 12 months, and has provided invaluable insight as the chair of the South West Regional Procurement Excellence Network. As a result, the COS Council is now a procurement leader for councils of its size and procurement capacity.
Northern Region Procurement Excellence Network (NRPEN) was awarded the Collaboration and Innovation in Procurement Award sponsored by Blue Connections IT for the Regional Procurement Policy Project.
Recognising a procurement project, action or initiative developed by different departments or organisations to deliver a successful outcome, the Collaboration and Innovation Award is given to entries that demonstrate a fresh approach to a challenging issue.
Over the past 12 months, the NRPEN has successfully collaborated to develop the first-ever Regional Procurement Policy that fully enables collaboration by:
- Clearly defining how and when the Northern Councils Alliance (NCA) members will collaborate
- Broadening the definition of Local Business
- Prescribing a common public tender threshold of $300K incl. GST to standardise the way the market deals with NCA members
- Setting out common exemptions to that public tender threshold
- Detailing a common set of evaluation criteria to streamline evaluation of collaborative contracts
- Prescribing common compliance requirements (e.g. for appointment of a Probity Auditor, etc.)
Effective as of 1 July 2021, the policy is universally transferable, innovative, and is able to be adopted by a range of Councils to enable collaboration, while still allowing necessary operational flexibility each Council requires.
Ambulance Victoria who was awarded the Sustainability Procurement Award sponsored by Bunnings Trade.
The Sustainability Procurement Award recognises organisations that have developed and implemented sustainable procurement policies and processes that address any or all of the following:
- reduced overall carbon footprint/emissions
- conserved energy and/or protect the environment
- conserved water
- enhanced biodiversity
- reduced waste.
Ambulance Victoria is committed to making strong progress towards a lower carbon model of ambulance healthcare. With a target of net zero emissions by 2045 and 100% renewables by 2025, the organisation needed a solid energy framework to begin work towards achieving these goals. In 2020, Ambulance Victoria joined Procurement Australia’s first power purchase agreement (PPA), setting ambitious reductions in emissions of 7% annually.
Less than two years later, a quarter of Ambulance Victoria’s energy is now renewable. The organisation has also procured and installed solar and lighting improvements at 15 ambulance branches state-wide to support the efficiency of the existing building portfolio’s impact. Further to this, they have developed a Social Procurement Framework and targets for social procurement that aims for social spend growth to improve responsible spend and enhance supplier involvement.
Overall, Ambulance Victoria’s ambitious sustainable procurement policies and strategies are immensely impressive and inspirational for their commitment and vision.
Ambulance Victoria who received the Social Procurement Award sponsored by MAIA Financial.
This very special award was created to acknowledge the importance of the role of social procurement and recognises member organisations that have developed social procurement policies, guidelines and who significantly support their local community.
Ambulance Victoria is in the process of embedding social procurement into its processes and policies. As part of this cultural shift, the organisation has highlighted opportunities to improve the social impact of their work throughout every facet of their network. Its intent is to design, create or enhance opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses, disabled, entrenched or disadvantaged Victorians, while also promoting women’s equality and safety.
Social procurement weighting has been integrated into its procurement tender evaluation process, with staff being encouraged to consider smaller, innovative and ethical suppliers when procuring goods and services.
FCM Travel who was named Supplier of the Year Award sponsored by Procurement Australia.
FCM Travel has consistently provided exceptional customer service through a dedicated customer service and account management team. In partnership with FCM Travel, the travel program at Procurement Australia has continued to innovate to provide more products and benefits for our members – even at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In 2021, a comprehensive Hotel Program was launched in the middle of the pandemic. The program has already provided our members with greater choice as well as further savings, in what has been a tumultuous period for the travel sector. Despite the challenges, FCM Travel have continued to provide our members with everything they need to travel – even with requirements changing on a daily basis.
FCM Travel has shown themselves to be a true partner for both Procurement Australia and our members, and have consistently gone above and beyond to deliver an exceptional program on our behalf for our members.
