Practice area
Government Procurement & TenderingGovernment procurement and tendering
Public buying is governed by the procurement rules that apply to the entity. Software can check a draft against the version the lawyer has opened. It cannot decide that a procurement achieved value for money.
Key facts
- Tasks covered
- 26
- Tasks with a step-by-step checklist
- 4
- Local differences
- 2 jurisdictions where this area changes
Jurisdiction
Tasks
GreenLawyer reviewYellowClose supervisionRedLawyer-led
| Task | How AI is used | Human involvement | What the lawyer must review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Check an approach to market against the rules that apply | Extract the draft approach-to-market headings and line them up against the rule headings the lawyer has taken from the applicable procurement rules. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Check an approach to market against the rules that apply | Extract the draft approach-to-market headings and line them up against the rule headings the lawyer has taken from the applicable Commonwealth Procurement Rules. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Check a US federal solicitation against the FAR text in force | Extract clause numbers from the solicitation into a list for the lawyer to open in the FAR. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Check an approach to market against the Government Procurement Rules | Extract estimated value, agency and proposed method from the draft. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Structure an evaluation record without scoring the bids | Organise the evaluation criteria and the tender excerpts the officials have tagged into a record template with empty score and comment fields. | RedLawyer-led |
|
| Draft a supplier debrief from the approved evaluation record | Draft a debrief letter from the approved evaluation record, limited to the comments that record says can be shared. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Compare a draft contract with the clause set the lawyer supplies | Compare the draft contract with the national, state or agency clause set the lawyer has supplied, and list clauses that differ. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Build a probity file index from the panel papers | From the evaluation plan, conflict declarations and contact logs, list missing declarations, unlogged contacts and documents that should be on the probity file. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Log tenderer questions and the approved answers | Turn clarification emails into a question-and-answer log, marking answers that have not been issued to all tenderers. | GreenLawyer review |
|
| Draft evaluation criteria and a scoring sheet from the statement of requirements | Produce a first-draft criteria and empty scoring sheet from the approved statement of requirements, with a list of criteria that are not in the statement. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Build a tender-complaint or process-challenge chronology | From the complaint and the evaluation file, produce a chronology of publication, closing, evaluation and decision dates, with missing documents flagged. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Build the procurement-connected policy and mandated-clause schedule | Take the value, industry category, delivery location and term from the lawyer-approved procurement plan, match them against the lawyer's current policy-trigger list, and draft the coverage schedule showing each policy, the trigger that brings it in, and the clause or schedule in the approach to market and draft contract that carries it. Mark every trigger the plan does not answer as open rather than resolving it. | GreenLawyer review | Confirm the current version and commencement of each policy instrument, decide the value, industry and location characterisations that drive each trigger, and check every clause and schedule reference against the actual documents before the approach to market is released. |
| Screen submissions for conformance and eligibility before evaluation starts | Compare each submission against the mandatory requirements the lawyer has extracted from the request documentation and draft the screening table showing what is present, what is absent and where each item appears. Record lodgement times and any stated cause of lateness as facts. Do not characterise a submission as conforming, non-conforming or excluded. | GreenLawyer review | Decide conformance, eligibility and exclusion for each submission, decide any late-lodgement question against the rules for the process, and check each recorded absence against the submission itself before it is relied on. |
| Set the tender timetable and the earliest lawful closing time | Apply the minimum-period rule and the circumstance characterisation the lawyer has selected to the calendar and draft the timetable, showing each extension and the circumstance that caused it and recalculating the closing time after each addendum. Show the arithmetic for every date rather than only the result. | YellowClose supervision | Select the applicable rule, decide the circumstances that shorten or extend the period, and independently verify each date and time, including the time zone stated in the approach to market and the effect of any extension on other tenderers. |
| Build the limited tender or exemption justification record | Work with the lawyer on the record: assemble the value, scope, market history and supporting documents, set out the condition or exemption the lawyer has selected, and help draft the statement of circumstances and the value-for-money record under the lawyer's direction. Do not select the condition or exemption and do not assert that it is satisfied. | YellowClose supervision | Select the condition or exemption, decide whether the facts actually meet it rather than merely sit near it, test the value-for-money conclusion independently, and confirm the reportable code and the reporting deadline before the record goes to the delegate. |
| Prepare the probity plan and the conflict-of-interest register for the evaluation | Populate the probity plan from the firm's validated template using the governance facts the lawyer has approved, and build the register from the returned declarations, listing each declarant, the role held and each declared interest against the tenderer and subcontractor lists. Leave the management action for each conflict blank for the lawyer. | GreenLawyer review | Decide the management action for each declared or apparent conflict, confirm the panel composition and the delegation, decide whether a probity adviser or auditor is warranted, and check that the plan describes the process actually to be run rather than the template's default. |
| Check the signed probity and conflict declarations against the procurement papers | Compare the returned declarations against the panel membership list, the tenderer and subcontractor lists and the register, and list who has not declared and which interests appear in the papers but not in any declaration. Write nothing into any declaration and draft no declaration text or wording: a declaration records the declarant's own knowledge in the declarant's own words. | RedLawyer-led | Take any further declaration directly from the person concerned, decide what each undisclosed interest means for the integrity of the process, and decide whether a panel member must stand aside or an evaluation step must be redone. |
| Build the tenderer's compliance and departures matrix | Extract every mandatory requirement, condition for participation, schedule, declaration and format rule from the request documentation into a numbered matrix, map each to the place in the draft response that answers it, and list what is unanswered. Do not draft the departure wording and do not decide whether a departure can be made or how it will be received. | GreenLawyer review | Settle each departure and its wording, confirm the matrix captures every mandatory requirement including those added by addenda, and check every declaration against what the client can actually and truthfully declare. |
| Prepare the confidentiality determination schedule for the awarded contract | Work with the lawyer to build the schedule: list each claimed item with the supplier's stated reason and the clause or schedule it sits in, set it against each limb of the confidentiality test, and help draft the determination wording under the lawyer's direction. Do not decide any limb and do not record a determination the lawyer has not made. | YellowClose supervision | Apply the confidentiality test to each item and decide what is genuinely confidential, check the executed contract records only what was determined, and confirm what must be notified to the supplier before any later disclosure and what must appear in the published listing. |
| Assess a proposed variation, extension or exercise of option against the original procurement | Extract the original scope, term, options, price basis and reported contract value from the executed contract and the contract notice, set the proposed change against them line by line, and draft the comparison table and the list of reporting triggers the change turns on. Do not conclude that the change is within scope or that no new procurement is required. | GreenLawyer review | Decide whether the change is within the scope and options actually contracted for or is a new procurement requiring its own process and record, check the extracted figures against the executed contract rather than the summary, and confirm the reporting entries and their deadlines. |
| Prepare the supplier's procurement complaint and protect the suspension | Work with the lawyer on the complaint: assemble the process record and the correspondence, set each alleged contravention against the provision the lawyer has identified and the documents that evidence it, and help draft the complaint under the lawyer's direction. Do not select the provision, do not assert a contravention and do not settle the remedy. | YellowClose supervision | Identify the provision relied on and confirm the procurement is one the regime covers, decide the remedy and the forum, and independently confirm the lodgement requirements and every time limit, including what a public interest certificate or an equivalent step would do to the suspension. |
| Draft AI-specific clauses for a government ICT procurement | Draft clauses on transparency, data, testing and liability using state guidance. | YellowClose supervision | Lawyer settles to the buyer's policy. |
| Assess a supplier's AI use against the buyer's AI policy | Build a compliance table from tender responses. | YellowClose supervision | Evaluation panel decides; do not let AI score bids. |
| Review an AI-drafted tender response for accuracy and confidentiality | Check claims, compliance statements and confidential material. | YellowClose supervision | Bid lead verifies every claim. |
| Prepare a procurement risk register for an AI system purchase | List risks (privacy, bias, security) and mitigations. | GreenLawyer review | Lawyer and probity adviser review. |
| Summarise a tender's conditions of participation | Extract mandatory requirements into a checklist. | GreenLawyer review | Verify against the RFT. |
| Respond to a government RFI for legal AI tools | Draft responses mapped to the RFI. | YellowClose supervision | Bid lead verifies. |
| Apply DTA AI procurement guidance to a contract | Check contract terms against the guidance. | YellowClose supervision | Lawyer advises. |
| Summarise AGS legal update on AI in services contracts | Summarise. | GreenLawyer review | Verify. |
Firm-wide obligations
| Obligation | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Trust accounting & handling client money | Checks that apply across files. |
| Costs, billing & litigation funding | Checks that apply across files. |
| Client-facing & access-to-justice AI tools | Checks that apply across files. |
| Incoming evidence — deepfakes & synthetic documents | Checks that apply across files. |
| AI decision systems | Checks that apply across files. |
| Confidentiality & client information | Checks that apply across files. |
| AML/CTF — the practice as a reporting entity | Checks that apply across files. |
What changes in New Zealand
| Topic | What changes |
|---|---|
| Governing rules | Government Procurement Rules (5th edition in force, with transition guidance from the 4th), with the Procurement Principles and Charter. |
| Mandatory rules | Where a Rule says 'must', it is compulsory. Not the Commonwealth Procurement Rules or a state treasury instruction. |
| Construction | Government construction contracts also meet the Construction Contracts Act 2002, including retention-money rules. |
- Government Procurement Rules · 2026-09-23
- MBIE: Understanding the Construction Contracts Act 2002 · 2026-09-23
What changes in United States
Known here as: Government procurement and tendering
| Topic | What changes |
|---|---|
| What changes | Federal procurement is the FAR and agency supplements, not the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. State and local codes are separate. |
| Bid protests | GAO, the Court of Federal Claims or the agency. |
| Checking | Check generated clause citations against the FAR version in force on the solicitation. |
- ABA Formal Opinion 512, Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools (29 July 2024) · 2026-09-23
- Acquisition.gov: Federal Acquisition Regulation · 2026-09-23
- GAO: Bid protests · 2026-09-23
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims · 2026-09-23
Precedents for this area
- Commonwealth Contracting Suite: approach to market and contract (procurements under $1 million) (Agreement, AI use Yellow). Guide to the Commonwealth Contracting Suite (CCS) for agency lawyers and suppliers: when it must be used, which parts are non-negotiable, where suppliers can negotiate, and how to respond, following the 2025 Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
- DTA AI model clauses (version 2.0): guide to selecting and using them in AI procurements (Clause, AI use Yellow). Guide to the Digital Transformation Agency's AI Model Clauses v2.0 on BuyICT: what each module covers, which to use for supplier AI use, bespoke AI systems and off-the-shelf AI, how to tailor them through the requirements, and what suppliers must be ready to show.
- Tender response compliance and conditions-for-participation checklist (including AI-drafted responses) (Checklist, AI use Yellow). Supplier-side checklist for preparing a compliant tender response to an Australian government approach to market, mapped to the 2025 Commonwealth Procurement Rules, with a review step for responses drafted with AI.
- Supplier declaration of AI use in service delivery (tender schedule) (Form, AI use Yellow). Tender schedule in which a supplier discloses where and how it uses AI to deliver the services, the data involved, human oversight, supply chain and banned-systems checks, so the buyer can approve AI use up front under clauses such as the DTA AI model clauses.
- Procurement complaint letter to a Commonwealth entity (covered procurement) (Letter, AI use Yellow). Supplier's written complaint to the accountable authority of a Commonwealth entity under the Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018, identifying the CPR contraventions, triggering the statutory investigation and suspension, and preserving the right to seek an injunction or compensation.
- NSW ICT Purchasing Framework contracts (Core&, MICTA and ICTA) (Agreement, AI use Yellow). Guide to the mandatory NSW Government ICT Purchasing Framework: when to use Core& or MICTA/ICTA, how the master and customer contracts fit together, what suppliers can negotiate, and how AI procurements interact with the NSW AI Assessment Framework.
All precedents for Government Procurement & Tendering. Signed-in accounts can read the full text.