Published in the National Business Review of 14 December 2007

Another tender for survey research work has been withdrawn from the government's compulsory tendering system in the wake of continuing controversy over a company seeking to extract commission for handling bids for work offered by government agencies.

The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) had previously told the firm, The Research Broker, to cease immediately making statements that the Ministry of Economic Development or GETS has approved or endorsed their tender process. The firm seeks ten percent commission from the successful bidder.

The mandatory rules of the Government Electronic Tendering System (GETS) say that "Departments must receive, open and evaluate all tenders under procedures that guarantee the fairness and impartiality of the procurement process.

This might not rule out having evaluations of tenders undertaken by third parties, but the rules of GETS do no make any provision for the payment of commissions for procurement and assessment of tenders.

Departments are required to post tender notices on GETS for contracts for goods and services worth over $100,000 (over $10million for construction services).

A tender for survey research offered by the Department of Labour has now been pulled from the GETS website. Two other tenders for research from the Chief Electoral Office of the Department of Justice and from the Auditor General were withdrawn previously.

However the Ministry of Social Development has posted a tender seeking expressions of interest for a survey of people turning 65 and it is using the Research Broker to deal with inquiries and assess the tenders.

MED officials met representatives of The Research Broker last week.

"We are still in the process of advising them on some points around the services they offer to government agencies (and in particular, their tender process). We expect this to be brought to a conclusion very soon," a Ministry spokesperson said.

Complaints have been made that GETS is supposed to be a free marketplace where the submissions are evaluated by those seeking the service, which implies that that there is no place for brokers or parties seeking a commission as The Research Broker is seeking to do.