Last week RCSA made good progress in relation to our objection to the All -of-Government (AoG) Talent Acquisition Services Request For Proposal (RFP). Whilst it was very helpful to see the four week extension to the RFP response deadline, this was simply not enough.
After numerous discussions with both Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Minister’s office—and even a commitment to meet with RCSA and industry leaders this week—both the Ministry and the Minister have now chosen to hide behind probity, instead of engaging with RCSA further. This is despite RCSA’s offering of agnostic representatives who no longer supply services within the market.
In response to this extremely disappointing development, RCSA has filed an Official Information Act (OIA) Request application to obtain documents which will detail how MBIE constructed this Gen 3 model.
We have also discussed our concerns with the RFP with the New Zealand Herald. This article published by the media house on Wednesday draws attention to the potentially negative outcomes for Government Agencies, and by extension New Zealanders who use these services and programs, as a result of the new RFP.
Moreover, RCSA is preparing a formal complaint to the Minister and MBIE outlining how they have departed from their own Market Engagement Guide, and will demand a suspension of the RFP until these processes have been adequately met. This complaint will be accompanied by an independently commissioned evaluation of the RFP in line with RCSA’s own Responsible Procurement Principles, and an assessment of the documents obtained through the OIA Request. RCSA will again request meetings with both the Minister and MBIE following this correspondence.
To support the independent evaluation and RCSA’s formal complaint, we are also asking members to submit their own evaluation of the RFP by following this link. We kindly ask that members complete this short survey by no later than close of business on Friday, 26 August 2022.
As always, we will continue to keep members up to date as this fluid, and seemingly disappointing, affair continues. In the meantime, if members have any questions we invite you to connect with Ines Hage Nebyl in RCSA’s Advocacy Team at [email protected] or on +61 448 332 610.