Reporting obligations for buyers

Pay on time

Not only is it good business practice to pay your suppliers on time, but there are government requirements around payment terms. You will be asked to report on your payment history in your annual report.

The Small Business Commission monitors and reports on agency payment performance to small businesses. This process has been automated using the NSW Procurement Spend Cube to develop a small business reporting dashboard.

For invoices under $10,000, you should pay as soon as possible using a PCard or electronic funds transfer.

You must pay invoices over $10,000 and under $1 million from registered small businesses (less than 20 employees) within 5 business days of receiving a correctly rendered invoice, unless an existing contract or standing offer says something different.

For construction contracts, you must:

• pay contractors any progress payments in line with the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999
• actively verify that head contractors are paying subcontractors on time and in line with the Act.

Report on-time payment in your annual report

Your agency needs to report on its record of on-time paying in your annual report. This includes:

• details of any actions you've taken to improve the way you pay invoices
• an outline of overdue payments that have attracted interest, with an explanation for why they were overdue.

Read more in TPG23-10 Annual Reporting Requirements.

Monitor Aboriginal participation plans

Under the Aboriginal Procurement Policy, you must monitor suppliers’ progress in implementing their Aboriginal participation plans and allocating spend for contracts valued at $7.5 million or more.

Suppliers must provide progress reports to the contracting agency quarterly. NSW Treasury will then collect this data from agencies 30 days after the end of a quarter.

Manage unallocated Aboriginal participation funds

Suppliers must distribute the full allocation of funds for Aboriginal participation in line with what they committed to in their Aboriginal participation plans.

If there are leftover funds that couldn’t be allocated, the agency must transfer the unallocated amount to the Aboriginal Participation Fund managed by Training Services NSW.

Report resource efficiency performance

Each year, you must provide a report to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment. This must outline how your agency performed against policy initiatives outlined in the Government Resource Efficiency Policy (GREP).

The reporting deadline is the last working day in November.

Complying with the GREP and reporting is voluntary if your agency has fewer than 100 employees.

Monitor SME and local participation plans

For goods and service contracts over $3 million, you must monitor whether your suppliers are delivering their SME and local content commitments.

Suppliers must report on these SME and local content commitments, including providing quarterly and final reports when delivering the contract.

Report human services engagements

If you engage a non-government organisation (NGO) suppliers to deliver human services, you must require them to report on:

• the location of where their services are delivered
• the local government authority where the service user resides.

You can seek an exemption from reporting on NGO engagement from the Procurement Leadership Group.

Report skills, training and diversity in construction

For construction projects over $10 million, you must ask contractors to report applicable skills, training and diversity targets. You must ask contractors to report at least every quarter on:

• their plans for engaging apprentices and trainees on your projects
• how they’re progressing on their project targets.

You must report each quarter to Training Services NSW on the number of apprentices and trainees your contractors employ.

For more information, see PBD-2023-01 Skills, training and diversity in construction.

Conduct financial assessments for construction contracts

You must regularly analyse the financial status of contractors over the life of construction contracts over $1 million.

At a minimum, this includes conducting a financial assessment of the preferred contractor before a construction contract is awarded and then:

• every 6 months for contracts over $1 million
• every 3 months for contracts over $7.5 million.

You must source financial assessment reports on contractors through the Financial Assessments Scheme. Financial assessments sourced through the scheme are stored in a central repository.

You must address any risks and recommendations identified in a financial assessment report throughout the life of the contract.