New Zealand
The Government Procurement Rules form the regulatory framework that governs public procurement in New Zealand. These rules are mandatory for approximately 136 public sector agencies, but are applicable throughout all levels of government. These rules take into account all eight RBC objectives – additional policy documents apply, depending on the RBC objective:
Human rights
This aspect is also included in the Supplier Code of Conduct and New Zealand’s Human Rights Act.
People with disabilities
This aspect is also covered by the Supplier Code of Conduct and New Zealand’s Human Rights Act.
Gender and minorities considerations
This aspect is also included in the Construction Procurement Guidelines and New Zealand’s Human Rights Act.
Integrity
Several policies apply, including the Code of Conduct for the State Services, the Supplier Code of Conduct and the Crimes Act.
New Zealand Government Procurement must always include integrity considerations as a standard contract provision.
Pre-tender phase
The Government Procurement Rules include a requirement to consider the environmental, economic, social and cultural outcomes that could be achieved from the procurement when planning the procurement. Any such outcomes that are to be considered in the procurement must be included in the published procurement notice.
Tender phase
According to the Government Procurement Rules, mandated government agencies must support the procurement of low-emission and low-waste goods and services, in the contract areas of vehicles, stationary heat, and office supplies.
Regarding labour rights and worker’s protection, agencies must require their suppliers to prove that they, and their domestic supply chain, comply with all health, employment and safety requirements.
New Zealand Government has a document called the Government Procurement Charter that outlines the government's expectations for how agencies conduct procurement procedures. This document includes ten directives such as the promotion of environmental responsibility, good employment practices and a risk management procedure. To support implementation of these practices, a number of good practice guides and online training modules are available to procurement officials.
When developing the regulatory and strategic framework that includes sustainable policy objectives, New Zealand Government Procurement opened their consultation publicly to all interested stakeholders in order to give them all an opportunity to share their points of view.
To monitor uptake of sustainable policy objectives in public procurement, the New Zealand Government is currently developing a centralised monitoring and reporting framework.