Dark Fibre and Internet Services

Grew past the open-tender threshold: first published at $51k. The Commonwealth Procurement Rules require an agency to estimate a procurement’s maximum value, including options and extensions, before choosing how to buy. Open tender is generally required at or above the threshold.

Common explanations: Extra work that could not have been foreseen at award. A nominal value published at award and updated once the actual amount was known. A construction contract outside AusTender category 72, which we cannot tell apart from other services.

Published late in a batch: one of 150 late notices the agency published that day. The Commonwealth Procurement Rules require agencies to report contracts on AusTender within 42 days of entering into them. A batch usually means a reporting backlog was cleared at once.

Common explanations: A new agency, or one changed by a machinery-of-government move, publishing contracts it took over. A review that found unreported contracts, followed by a correction. Leases or standing arrangements reported again under new notices.