ACT Region
Welcome to the ACT Region Page
| ACT Regional Chair: | Robyn Hardy |
| ACT Regional Vice Chair: | Troy Watkins |
| Contact Email: | act@cipsa.com.au |
| Click here for ACT events | events@cipsa.com.au |
Latest News and Events
Open Training Courses Booking Out Quickly
Canberra, your training season has finished for 2008, thank you for your support this year. See what is still running in other cities this year, then jump online and book a cheap flight! To request expressions of interest for courses to be run in 2009, please send your requests to training@cipsa.com.au
ACT to promote Procurement at careers fair
On August 6-7, the ACT regional committee will be volunteering their time at a careers fair in Canberra to promote Procurement amongst current university students.
The 2008 Canberra Careers Market is the largest event of its type in Canberra and the best opportunity available to help young people in Canberra and the region to consider their post-school options. Mark the date on your calendar, this year the Canberra Careers Market will be held 6-7 August.
Over 100 local and national exhibitors, including universities, colleges, industry and career placement organisations will provide a wide range of information sources. There will be the opportunity to Try’aTrade, where students and visitors can try their hand at trades, myfuture where students can access an online national career development program and students and parents/carers can meet with qualified career advisers.
For the first time this year the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Lounge will give students the opportunity to network with and be inspired by successful entrepreneurs and to talk about h
ow they might start their own small business.
The 2008 Canberra Careers Market will be:
Date: Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 August 2008
Times: TBA
Venue: Australian Institute of Sport, Leverrier Crescent Bruce
If you would like to help volunteer your time at the Careers Market and help the ACT regional committee promote the procurement profession to school leavers, then email ACT chair Robyn Hardy, act@cipsa.com.au
ACT Members - tell your colleagues to start writing now!
CIPSA National Essay Competition
Would you like the opportunity to win $2000 plus an all-expenses paid trip to the 4th Annual CIPS Australia National Procurement Conference in Melbourne, October 2008? Submit your entry into the CIPS National Essay Competition to be in with a chance!
By submitting an essay of 1500-2500 words on one of three questions by the 29th August, 2008 you could become a regional winner of the competition and win $1000.
Questions:
- How does the procurement profession avoid “green wash” and ensure truly sustainable sourcing solutions are presented to stakeholders?
- Are a socially responsible procurement policy and a low-cost country sourcing strategy mutually exclusive?
- As the generic cost of production falls, and the generic cost of freight rises, how will carbon trading affect supply chains?
The winner from each region will automatically be entered into the national competition with the chance to win a further $1000, and the aforementioned trip to the 4th Annual CIPS Australia Conference on 14 October.
The competition this year, has been generously sponsored by Curtin University.
Fast Track Arbitration - 4th September 2008
The Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia; Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors; Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply Australia and Master Builders Association ACT invites you to a light hearted and very entertaining seminar with live role plays on “Fast Track Arbitration”.
What is Fast Track Arbitration? Sir Laurence Street will host a very entertaining and an informative presentation about arbitration in the fast lane - reviving the age old method of dispute resolution. Learn through realistic role plays the peculiarities of fast track arbitration.
Join us for pre-seminar cocktails at 5.30pm for a start at 6.00pm sharp, on Thursday 4th September
RSVP early (as seats are limited) to contact@aiqs.com.au (please do not RSVP to CIPSA)
Please see the invite and booking form attached.
APCC launch new capability guide at Public Sector Conference
The 3rd Public Sector Procurement Forum (PSPF3) proved another successful CIPSA conference event at the National Convention Centre in Canberra on 21-22 May 2008. Although developed and run by CIPSA, this event is endorsed and supported by both the Australian Procurement and Construction Council [APCC] and the federal Department of Finance & Deregulation [DoFD] – Minister Lindsay Tanner’s department.
More than 200 people attended the event, with 94% delegates rating the event as Excellent or Good. Highlights included excellent case study presentations from three governments (WA, QLD and NZ) as well as an introduction to new federal procurement initiatives from John Grant, first assistant secretary at DoFD. A fascinating comparison of the private sector approach to strategic procurement from Craig Lardner, CPO at George Weston Foods also impressed delegates. Although after-dinner speaker Bob Carr stole the show, proving his mastery of public speaking at the event dinner on the evening of 21st May.
This was the first PSPF event that included seminar streams in addition to the 11 key note speakers presented. 13 seminars covered learning topics relevant to public sector procurement practitioners day-to-day challenges with the aim of helping people do a better job as soon as they get back to the office.
The APCC officially launched their new ‘Building Government Procurement Capabilities’ guide. Introduced by Chair of the APCC Skills Committee, John Tondut, Exec Director, OGP, WA DTF, this Guide is an aspirational document and has been produced to provide direction on the development of public sector capabilities and professionalism as well as to set target benchmarks for Australian and New Zealand public sector procurement workforces. It succeeds the earlier version first published in November 2006 and includes in a supplement a useable and comprehensive capability matrix for public sector procurement professionals, which was developed with significant input from CIPS, and benchmarks well against global best practice standards. A PDF version of the Guide and Supplement are available for free download at www.apcc.gov.au
Plans are already being developed for next year’s event, which will be even larger and is likely to move to a new time slot in the calendar. Ideas for inclusion in the event are welcomed by CIPSA producer, Nigel Wardropper at nigelw@bttbonline.com . Further details of the PSPF4 event will be available on www.cipsaconferences.com.au as part of the 2009 programme in due course.
Contribute to your local news
Always considered yourself a bit of a Clark Kent? Procurement Super Hero by day, sleuth journalist by night? Well we would love to see your talent, and even if you don’t have the talent, we would still love to hear the gossip from your region. Got any news on movers and shakers, big contracts awarded, something local to your region, or country? Send in your article, or link to an article on the web and if we think its newsworthy we will publish it in the monthly newsletter. Deadlines for each newsletter is the last week of each month, so get in your submissions now. Submissions will be by-lined by agreement. Email news@cipsa.com.au with the subject line <Your Region> Newsletter Submission.
Meet your Chair and Vice Chair.
ACT Chair: Robyn Hardy
Acting executive director, ACT Procurement Solutions (a division of ACT Treasury) Robyn has had a long and varied career in the public service, both in the Commonwealth and the ACT Governments. She is an economist, having studied for her undergraduate degree at James Cook University of North Queensland. She has also completed a Masters Degree in public policy at the Australian National University (ANU) and is currently studying for her Doctorate at ANU.
Email Robyn at act@cipsa.com.au
ACT Vice Chair: Troy Watkins
Senior manager, KPMG
Troy has 20 years of experience and expertise, including consulting and operational roles in both domestic and international environments. Prior to joining KPMG, Troy was senior manager with McGrathNicol+Partners in the corporate advisory group specialising in project management, strategic
procurement and business transformation; a senior strategic procurement adviser and business analyst for Airservices Australia; a manager in the financial risk management division of the Commonwealth Bank
of Australia; and a manager with Ernst & Young’s assurance and advisory division in Sydney, Australia.
Email Troy at act@cipsa.com.au
NZ and Australia join to make public service more sustainable
The New Zealand and Australian governments have established the first trans-Tasman joint framework for sustainable government procurement to ensure that public sector organisations in both countries consider the environmental credentials of goods and services they buy, according to www.scoop.co.nz.
The move to work with the Australians on sustainable procurement follows the New Zealand government’s recent announcement on its own mandated environmental standards, guidelines and targets for the public service.
For the full press release visit the direct link here.
