Contract
Management
for Government
Masterclass 2027

• The accountability chain from accountable authority to contract manager, and where your delegation really sits
• What the PGPA Act and the Commonwealth Procurement Rules require after award, and the state and local equivalents
• Value for money as a continuing obligation, not a tender-stage test
• Probity duties that survive the procurement — conflicts, confidentiality and fair dealing
• What the ANAO, internal audit and Senate Estimates ask for, and what a defensible file looks like

ExerciseMap the accountability chain for a supplied case study and identify who is entitled to make which decision.

• The contract management plan — what it must contain and how detailed it needs to be
• Mobilisation, transition-in and the handover from the procurement team
• Reading your own contract properly: obligations register, key dates, notice provisions, options and expiry
• Risk allocation in practice — liability caps, indemnities and insurance, and what to verify annually
• Proportionate management: tiering low-value and low-risk contracts without ignoring them

ExerciseBuild an obligations and key-dates register from a supplied services agreement.

• Making service levels and KPIs measurable, and fixing the ones that are not
• Running a contract review meeting that produces a record rather than a conversation
• Abatements, service credits and performance regimes — why agencies hold them and never use them
• Managing the supplier relationship without drifting into informal agreement
• Where good faith ends and the contract begins

ExerciseAssess a supplied performance report against the contract’s service levels and decide what you would do next.

• Variation or new procurement — where the line sits and what happens when you cross it
• Scope creep and the accumulation problem: small changes that become a procurement breach
• Exercising options and extensions properly, including notice timing and approval
• The binding email — how routine correspondence creates variations nobody intended
• Documenting a variation so that it survives audit

ExerciseWork through four proposed changes to a supplied contract and decide which can be varied and which cannot.

• Identifying and evidencing underperformance before it hardens into a dispute
• Escalation: the steps, the notices, the cure periods and the mistakes that weaken you
• Remedies short of termination — rectification plans, step-in, withholding and set-off
• Termination for cause and for convenience: consequences, cost and continuity of service
• Dispute resolution, internal escalation and preserving a relationship you may need to keep

ExerciseWork through a breach scenario and determine the commercial and contractual response.

• Invoice verification and what you are certifying when you approve a payment
• Transition-out: data, assets, intellectual property, records and service continuity
• Supplier performance history and how it should inform the next procurement
• Retention, recordkeeping and what auditors expect to find on a closed file
• Lessons learned that actually get used

ExerciseComplete a close-out checklist against a supplied contract and identify what is missing.