The Digital Transformation Agency will move ahead with a transparency crackdown on hospitality from ICT suppliers to government personnel, following an investigation involving NDIA and Salesforce earlier this year.
The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) will also have a role in the effort, announced late last night.
The moves were made on the recommendation of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, which investigated NDIA – the National Disability Insurance Agency – and gifts and hospitality accepted by officials from Salesforce, coinciding with a large customer relationship management (CRM) project at the agency.
The gifts violated Salesforce’s own policies and led the committee to ask the Finance Department to take a broader look at ICT vendor influence and relationship-building across the federal government.
A government response [pdf] published late on Thursday night commits DTA and APSC resourcing to this effort.
The DTA has been directed to review public gift and benefit disclosures on an agency-by-agency basis from April 1, with particular attention paid to vendors with whole-of-government contracts or that sit on DTA-convened panels.
It will also ask for data directly from vendors as well – “of all gifts offered, and gifts accepted, by APS [Australian Public Service] officers over the 12-month period to March 31 2026.”
Vendors will be asked to supply this data quarterly, and the intent is the DTA will both publish it and use it to inform further actions or recommendations to the joint committee.
Additionally, vendors must now meet the terms of a Commonwealth supplier code of conduct, launched July 1, as part of any contracts they strike with federal agencies.
The APSC, meanwhile, is set to review gift and benefit guidance given to agency heads “with a view to expanding the mandatory declaration requirements and strengthening the public reporting obligations beyond agency heads”.
A consultation with agencies will take place, with revised guidance expected by mid-2025.