Council continues to buy local
Published on 10 December 2019
The latest figures from Rockhampton Regional Council show that their longstanding Local Preference Policy is paying dividends to the region’s businesses.
Rockhampton Region Acting Mayor Cherie Rutherford said the proportion of money spent with local contractors continues to grow.
“In the 12 months to the end of October this year, Council spent $96.4 million locally on goods and services out of a total of $124 million, which is about 78 per cent,” Acting Mayor Rutherford said.
“What I am particularly pleased to see is that this is up about 4 per cent on last year.
“The only reason the number isn’t higher is because of the specialist nature of some projects which means we can’t contract within the region. That includes things like water truck trailers, bulk supply of water treatment chemicals, and equipment for the landfill.
“However, where we can, we stay local. For example when it comes to road marking materials, plant and equipment, and trade services we have kept our spend at 92% of that budget. That translates to $27.1 million from a total spend of $29.6 million.
“On top of that, we also spent an additional $6 million with local Council areas surrounding our boundaries, so when we can’t do it within our own area we are still aiming to keep the money in Central Queensland.
“We said we’d commit to local businesses and help nurture and grow our Region’s economy and that is exactly what we are doing,” Acting Mayor Rutherford said.
The Local Preference Policy gives local business a 12 per cent weighting for projects under $1 million and 5 per cent weighting for greater than $1 million.
For projects over $150,000, tenderers who nominate local suppliers and sub-contractors for goods and services for use in the project to a minimum value of 30% of the tendered sum also receive a weighting of 10 per cent.
The policy is available on Council’s website here.
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