Earlier this week, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment issued new versions of the Government Model Contract templates. The Government Model Contract (GMC) templates are intended to be the default template for government agencies purchasing low-value and low-risk common goods and services, and, in practice, they are frequently used by government agencies for a variety of procurements. In addition, the changes made to the GMC templates may be of interest to agencies that are considering how to implement some of the expectations set out in the Public Service Commissioner's recent inquiry into the protection of personal information and identification and management of conflicts of interest.
What is changing?
In summary, the more notable changes are:
- The conflicts of interest provisions have been expanded to clarify that they apply to suppliers' subcontractors too. The GMC templates now assume that there may be conflicts of interest, and include a placeholder for detailing these
- The payment timeframes have been amended to reflect the prompt payment requirements under Rule 51A of the Procurement Rules, which took effect for mandated agencies from 1 January 2025, and requires that domestic trade invoices are paid within 10 business days
- The buyer can now terminate the contract immediately by giving written notice if the supplier breaches the Supplier Code of Conduct (or any other code of conduct listed in the contract), and that breach means that the buyer considers it no longer has trust and confidence in the supplier
- The "Extraordinary Event" provisions now include where a buyer fails to make payment because of an event beyond its reasonable control.
What should I be doing?
We anticipate that all government agencies will be working through the implications of the Public Service Commissioner's inquiry. The changes to the conflict of interest provisions in the GMC templates may provide helpful examples of the types of changes that may need to be made from a contractual perspective.
In addition, if you are an agency that uses the GMC templates, it may be helpful to consider whether there are any changes that need to be incorporated into existing GMC and/or internal templates (including to any Schedule 1 templates that the agency has adapted for its own use, which will need to be amended to reflect the GMC changes to Schedules 1 and 2).
If you have any questions about changes to the GMC templates, or what the Public Service Commissioner's inquiry may mean for your agency, please get in touch with one of our team.
