PBD-2025-04 Mandate for the publication of NSW Government open tender opportunities on buy NSW

Detailed Outline

This direction mandates the publication of all NSW Government open tender opportunities irrespective of the value on buy NSW.

Centralised publication of NSW Government supply opportunities will improve procurement outcomes, increase transparency and visibility of procurement activity and help to ensure that the government is spending public money fairly, efficiently and for the long-term benefit of everyone in NSW.

All open tender opportunities irrespective of the value must be published on the buy NSW Tenders module.

For the purposes of this Direction, "open tender" is defined in accordance with the NSW Procurement Policy Framework.

 The following categories of opportunities are optional for publication on buy NSW:

• Opportunities through established agency specific panels
• Direct negotiation
• Market sounding or request for information
• Selective tenders

Open tender opportunities will be published on the buy NSW Opportunities Hub, distributed via the nightly opportunities email and matched to supplier dashboards using the buy NSW taxonomy. Selective opportunities may be published on the buy NSW Opportunities Hub, will be matched to invited supplier’s dashboards and distributed via email to the nominated supplier contact.

Publishing to the buy NSW Opportunities Hub for selective opportunities is determined by the nominated visibility at the time of publishing. The following definition of visibility applies:

• Limited visibility: Published on the buy NSW Opportunities Hub with limited details. Only invited suppliers are able to respond
• Restricted visibility: Not published on the buy NSW Opportunities Hub. Only visible to invited suppliers

Only nominated invited suppliers and users with appropriate agency/administrative permissions will have visibility of restricted selective opportunities (e.g. direct negotiation market approaches). These opportunities will be included in reporting.

All opportunities are available for matching to contract disclosures following completion of the market engagement.

Upon request, agencies will be provided with access to the buy NSW Opportunities Application Programming Interface (API) to simplify and streamline the publishing process. The API allows the automated publishing of opportunities, amendments and provides a complete list of all published opportunities. Agencies can also manually publish opportunities if they choose to do so.

Effective date and transitional arrangements

This direction will be effective from 1 January 2026.

Agencies will have up to 1 July 2026 to comply with this Direction. During this time buy NSW will work with agencies on implementation of the buy NSW Opportunities API for automated publishing.

Context

Centralising publication of NSW Government open tender opportunities creates a single source of truth of procurement activity and enables the matching of published procurement activity to outcomes (contract disclosures). It supports improved data quality of downstream systems such as SpendCube and enhance visibility of on and off-contract spend.

 A centralised record of opportunities will:

• Ensure all Government open tender opportunities are visible to registered suppliers on buy NSW
• Match completed opportunities to contract disclosures to improve connection between outcome and activity
• Improve transparency and visibility of invited suppliers to support and better measure impacts of Government priorities such as local industry and manufacturing
• Reduce barriers to entry for smaller suppliers and simplify access to procurement opportunities

To reduce the burden and overhead for agencies all publishing of opportunities can be completed programmatically using APIs from agency systems to buy NSW.