Grants and tenders

Grants

Grants help us to improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians.

Our grants fund and support individuals or organisations to deliver activities in health, aged care or sport.

View all our current public grants on GrantConnect.

How we administer grants

The Community Grants Hub in the Department of Social Services provides grants administration services to Australian Government client agencies, including our department. 

We use the Commonwealth Standard Grant Agreement. To make sure we get value for money, we administer our grants in line with the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Guidelines.

To help grant applicants, we try to time our grants rounds so that they will:

• be open for at least 6 weeks from the date of approach to market
• not be open over the Christmas period. In most cases grant rounds will close at least 1 week before Christmas. If we do conduct a grants round over the Christmas period, we try to set the close date to at least the end of January
• not start in the first 3 weeks of January.

For current grant recipients, we also try to:

• provide a 3 month transition period if you are unsuccessful in getting further funding. For example, you will be notified that you are unsuccessful by 31 March for agreements expiring on 30 June
• start a new agreement with you (if you are short-listed for further funding) before the end of the current agreement.

Learn more about how we are strengthening our approach to grant program administration.

Grant reporting

We make a lot of information about our grants available to the public. Our grant reporting includes:

• listing all approved grants – see departmental and agency approved grants (senate order listing 16)
• listing all grant contracts worth $100,000 or more – see departmental and agency contracts (senate order listing 13)
• providing information on each grant as required by the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines (paragraph 5.3). These reports are available on GrantConnect.

Tenders

We buy goods and services from other organisations through tenders. Examples of goods and services include IT products and services, office furniture, equipment and supplies, and administrative and professional services.

Our tender process helps us to:

• make sure we get value for money
• encourage competition
• use resources efficiently, effectively, ethically and economically
• make clear, accountable decisions
• monitor, regulate and evaluate the good or service we receive.

In a request for tender, we ask tendering organisations to tell us how much they will charge to provide goods or services. In their tender, they tell us exactly what they will provide, how they will provide it and how much it will cost.

We then choose the best proposal, following the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

View our open tenders on AusTender, the Australian Government Electronic Tender System.

How we administer tenders

We administer our tenders in line with the Government’s procurement policy framework.

The framework has been developed to make sure all government procurement is:

• value for money
• transparent
• efficient.

Tender reporting

We report all awarded procurement contracts with a value greater than $10,000 on AusTender (including open tenders) and contracts worth $100,000 or more on the Senate Order listings page on AusTender.

We also report all of our advertising, market research, polling, direct mail and consultant contracts each year in our Annual Report.

Making a complaint

We handle complaints about grants and tenders:

• fairly
• without discrimination
• as efficiently as possible.

Where to send your complaint

Grants

To make a complaint about a grant process, email or write to the Contact Officer for that process. The Contact Officer will be clearly identified in the contact details for that grant.

Tenders and procurement

To make a complaint about a procurement – including tenders – email our Complaints Officer. This includes complaints relating to the Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018 (GPJR Act).

What to include

When making a complaint, please include:

• a clear statement about what you think was wrong with the grant or procurement process
• copies of, or references to, information to support the complaint
• a clear statement about what you hope to achieve from making a complaint
• your contact details so we can respond to you and your concerns.

How we process your complaint

Once you have made your complaint, we will:

• promptly confirm in writing (email or post) that we have received your complaint
• if we need to, ask for more information and give you at least 10 working days to respond (unless the matter is urgent)
• determine whether the complaint meets the criteria under the GPJR Act – if so, the procurement will be suspended while we investigate, unless it is not in the public interest to do so and a public interest certificate is issued
• investigate and seek to resolve the issue within 10 to 15 days after receiving the complaint (or let you know if it may take longer)
• notify you of the outcome.

Read more about how we handle procurement complaints in the Department of Finance’s Resource Management Guide 422 – Handling complaints under the Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018.

Public interest certificates (PICs)

PICs are issued when it’s not in the public interest to stop a procurement while we investigate the complaint. Our Secretary, or their delegate, signs a PIC.

Current PICs issued by our department

Current PICs issued by our department

If you are not happy with the outcome

If you are not happy with our response to your complaint, you can:

• make an application to the Federal Court or Federal Circuit Court
• request an internal review – these are done by independent technical officers whose experience best suits the nature of the complaint
• contact the Commonwealth Ombudsman or the Australian Government’s Procurement Coordinator.