Contracts Officer - Notes

Bruce Barbour - October 2020

I am making available the notes that I prepared over the years related to my work as a Contracts Officer in Victorian Local Government.

The reason that I make this available this is in the hope that others who are at the start of their career in the same field will find it useful. It is part of my philosophy that information gained should be passed on for the benefit of those that follow - to push the stone forward up the hill (even if it is only to roll back down to the bottom - who knows). To not do so is a waste.

When I accidentally began work as a Contracts Officer there was no document or course that I found that covered all the information that a Contracts Officer needs to know to perform their job. That information was largely picked up as the job was performed - information from colleagues, from short courses on aspects of the works and from doing the job - and also previous related work experience. Having a document that had most of the basic information that a Contracts Officer should know in the one place would have been very useful. It is, of course, not sufficient by itself - nothing beats the experience gained while doing the job.

Contract Officer Notes - Version 1

The MS Word document "Contracts Officer - Notes" (Version 1) is based on my work in local government in Victoria, Australia, so some of the legislation and regulation mentioned will not apply to other locations or organisation. However most of what constitutes good tendering practice is widely applicable.

For anyone not in a procurement role or other related type work I offer this document as a possible cure for insomnia which, I am sure you will agree, is a good service in itself.

If you intend to read and in anyway use this document please note the disclaimer I have included early in the document (page 2).

I have also provided a tender evaluation spreadsheet template. Only use if you fully understand the operations of the spreadsheet and have determined that it is suitable for the way that you and your organisation performs tender evaluations. Adjust as necessary to suit your tender evaluation processes. Note that there are a number of hidden sheets and also hidden rows on some sheets. Please investigate these. Disclaimers similar to the Contracts Officer Notes apply.

If you want to comment on the document or suggest additions, modifications or corrections (that's right - tell me where you think I may have erred - if I agree I will change it), or to simply tell me how you are using the document, please email me.

Regards
Bruce Barbour

Contents Page.