Procurement complaints

Safe Work Australia aims to deal with complaints in a fair, equitable and non-discriminatory way.

You can submit a complaint if you are unhappy with the way we have conducted a procurement or believe that we have breached the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs).  

The Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018 (the GPJR Act) protects the interests of suppliers and potential suppliers. The GPJR Act covers breaches of the CPRs for:

  • purchases of goods or services at or above $80,000 (including GST)
  • purchases of construction services at or above $7.5 million (including GST) 

Complaint process

If you want to lodge a complaint about a procurement process or believe we have breached the CPRs, you can email procurements@swa.gov.au.

In handling your complaint, we will:

  • acknowledge we’ve received it
  • assess whether it meets the criteria under the GPJR Act
  • investigate your complaint and, if appropriate, suspend the procurement unless a Public Interest Certificate has been issued 
  • work with you to resolve your complaint as soon as possible

At the end of the process, you will receive a report on the outcome of the investigation.

If you are not happy with the outcome, you can:

For more information the complaints handling process you can read the Handling complaints under the Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018 Resource Management Guide on the Department of Finance website.

What should you include in your complaint?

To help us resolve your complaint quickly, please send your complaint in writing and include:

  • your name and contact details, along with your business name and ABN 
  • details of the goods or services being procured, estimated contract value, relevant time and date for the procurement, and the ATM AusTender ID, or Agency ID (if known)
  • an outline of your complaint, the relevant CPRs which you believe were breached and details of how you were affected
  • the remedy that you are seeking
  • any documents or evidence that support your complaint