Consistent with the obligations of government, agencies and public officers to manage public funds at an exemplary standard and to optimise VfM throughout the project delivery process, the Policy requires the use of full competition as the default position unless it can be evidenced (in the Business Case) that there is a net public benefit in not using full competition in a specific project. In any case, the use of competition, exclusive collaboration and negotiation must comply with all relevant laws, policies, duties and responsibilities.
The Policy is satisfied when competition is used to assess both price and non-price elements of a Proponent's offer when selecting Participants for an alliance project. Competition also provides the most effective way of ensuring and demonstrating that taxpayers achieve the required project outcomes at a fair price.