Page 54 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2019

INFRASTRUCTURE
PLANNING
base (including ICT and HR services) is re- turning a 69 per cent satisfaction rate, com- pared with just 49 per cent three years ago.
“That’s a good indication that people are noticing what we’re doing and it’s worth carrying on,” he said.
Local industry capability
Over the past few years E&IG has been working with the Commonwealth to build a local industry capability around the De- fence bases and has developed a pilot pro- cess which is now being adopted across the rest of Defence.
“We prototyped it a few years ago and now all of my capital projects go through a process where we ask our tenderers to ex- plain how they will engage with local indus- try in their bids. If the tender is successful, we will hold them to account for the level of local content promised,” Grzeskowiak said.
Historically, E&IG has had around 60 per cent local industry content in its capi- tal works projects but it is now achieving around 80 per cent of the value of the work done.
“While we ask a prime contractor in the tender phase to explain to us how they’re going to engage with local industry, we are very clear that value for money is still – as required by the Commonwealth rules – an overriding consideration,” Grzeskowiak ex- plained.
“So, that doesn’t mean the local compa- nies are going to get the work, but often we find they provide good value, when com- pared with bringing a company in from somewhere else. It’s about creating oppor- tunities for them, but they still have to dem- onstrate value for money to win the work.”
Indigenous procurement
E&IG has arguably also led the way for the rest of Defence in the indigenous procure- ment space and Grzeskowiak is the Defence indigenous champion.
“The Commonwealth Procurement Rules allow us to discriminate in favour of indigenous companies. We have placed a lot of contracts with indigenous owned companies, to the extent that Defence was awarded the Government Supplier of the Year award by Supply Nation earlier this year,” he said.
“As the Defence indigenous champion, I’ve personally put a lot of work into this since 2014, when I went on a three-day tour with the Cape York Partnership, which was a showcase of what they are trying to do to create work for local people in Far North Queensland.”
Grzeskowiak says that even before the re- lease of the Government’s Indigenous Pro-
ABOVE: Members of the local community enter the F-35A precinct during an F-35A Community Day at RAAF Base Williamtown.
RIGHT: Defence Deputy Secretary Estate
and Infrastructure
and Indigenous Champion Mr Steve Grzeskowiak speaking at the 2019 National Reconciliation Week event held at the National Museum of Australia.
curement Policy, E&IG was looking to use the exemption in the procurement rules, whereby an indigenous owned company could be sole sourced, providing they repre- sented value for money.
“Last financial year we placed contracts to the value of $450 million with indigenous owned companies and half of that amount was on one large contract, the biggest we’ve ever awarded an indigenous owned com- pany,” he said.
“In the preceding years we’ve been aver- aging over $100 million a year and so the Supply Nation award is in recognition of the work we’ve done. It is pleasing now to see that, across Defence, we’re starting to see more and more indigenous companies winning work from Defence and our prime contractors. It has been a success story, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Defence Estate rationalisation
Work also continues on the Defence Estate rationalisation program. Disposal fork is going on for Leeuwin Barracks in WA, Bu- limba Barracks in Queensland, the former Defence site in Maribyrnong in Melbourne and the Stokes Hill fuel storage area in Darwin. Site disposal has historically been a contentious issue for Defence given the political nature of divestments.
“We have a few more business cases work- ing through the government approval pro- cess. We are looking forward and making adjustments to position Defence facilities for the ADF of the future,” Grzeskowiak explained.
“But this is something where you have to have an eye on the long-term future and seek to get yourself there over time, because it’s expensive to dispose of a significant Defence property. Generally, you have to
54 | September 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
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