Purchasing and Procurement

From time to time, your group may need to purchase goods or engage contractors with facility funds to assist with managing your facility.

Purchasing

Your group must provide Council with details in writing of any proposal to purchase an item with facility funds that exceed the value of $999.00 (with the exception of electricity bills above $1,000 which can be paid without Council approval).

This may allow Council to ‘capitalise’ the item for future replacement from within Council’s budget where possible. All payments by you, or proposed by you, should be approved or passed for payment by a resolution at a meeting of your group and recorded in the minutes.

Engaging Contractors

You must obtain Council approval (in writing) prior to engaging a contractor.  If Council approval is obtained, the delegated authority must ensure the contractor provides the following:

  • Current Public Liability Insurance - $20 Million;
  • Current Workers Compensation Insurance;
  • Workcover WH&S General Induction Certificate and specific trade induction if required;
  • Appropriate licences; and
  • Site Specific Risk Assessment and appropriate Safe Work Method Statements.  

Use of Facility Funds

Facility funds are to pay for goods and services required to operate a community or recreation facility.  Your group can only make payments for goods or services when the provider issues a Tax Invoice.

Under no circumstances can your group make honorarium payments from facility funds to a person undertaking services at the facility for or on their behalf. Honorariums are payments of a nominal amount of money to a person or persons for services provided, where the individual presents no tax invoice for payment.

In general, facility funds are to make payments relating to the management of a Council facility, for example, electricity, every day canteen/kitchen cleaning products and light bulbs.  Other expenses such as uniforms, trophies, PA systems, and sporting equipment relate to club activities and cannot be purchased with facility funds.  If in doubt, please contact Council.

At Recreation Facilities, facility funds are not to be made available to purchase and or maintain small plant and equipment or sporting equipment that remain the property of user groups e.g. mowers, rollers, canteen equipment etc.  The only exception to this is for line marking machines and this requires the written consent of Council.

Any items required for the upkeep of Council-supplied First Aid Kits can be purchased with facility funds, as it is a Council requirement to have a fully stocked and functional First Aid Kit on site at a facility where volunteers are undertaking work on Council’s behalf.

Purchasing Cleaning Products and Chemicals

In ordering bulk quantities of chemical or cleaning products to use at a Council facility, you must ensure Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are stored with the materials and available at Community and Recreation Facilities.

Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provide a summary of information on chemicals contained in a product.  The MSDS identifies health and physical hazards, exposure limits and necessary precautions. 

Manufacturers provide these MSDS with their products providing information for hazardous and non-hazardous substances.  The MSDS is an essential starting point for the development of a risk assessment.  It contains much more information about the material than the label. 

To ensure these MSDS are available you can purchase the products listed on Council’s Purchase Order Form.  Council will deliver the products and MSDS are required to be accessible during the use of any chemicals.

Instructions on how to purchase items from Council are located on the Purchase Order Form. If you are unsure of this process, please contact Council for clarification.

For facility cleaning and insect control products (cockroaches, spiders) purchased in a supermarket or hardware store, the directions provided on the packaging is usually sufficient.  Tax Invoices for these purchases must be received and recorded by your group for reimbursement and financial record keeping purposes.

Page Last Updated: 31 Mar 2021