The Strategic Reform Program, which emanated from the 2009 Department of Defence White Paper, outlined a program of reforms designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department of Defence. A key component of the reform program, the Defence Logistics Transformation Program, aimed to modernise and enhance Defence's warehousing, distribution and land materiel maintenance functions to provide optimum support to the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
An AGS team lead by John Scala (Chief Counsel Commercial), assisted by Paul Lang (Deputy General Counsel), Garth Cooke (Senior Executive Lawyer), Stuart Hilton (Senior Lawyer), Stella Chu (Senior Lawyer) and other members of the AGS Commercial team provided probity and legal process advice to Defence. AGS advised on the structure and conduct of market-sounding and industry consultation process, and the subsequent development and conduct of the procurement processes.
Following the market-sounding and industry consultation process in 2012, Defence's Joint Logistics Command commenced 2 major procurement processes, for the provision of warehouse and distribution services and for the provision of land materiel maintenance services.
On 3 May 2013, Defence concluded the first procurement process with the signing of a contract with Transfield Services (Australia) for the provision of equipment maintenance services to Joint Logistics Command units across Australia. The contract, with an initial term of 6 years, covers the maintenance of land-based vehicle fleets primarily operated by the Australian Army.
The second procurement process was concluded on 19 December 2013, when Defence signed a contract with Linfox Australia with an initial term of 5 years for the provision of warehouse and distribution services for all Defence inventory handled through Defence logistics units across Australia, with the exception of explosive ordnance.
This is an extract from the 2013–14 AGS annual report