All councils want to support their local businesses, but council procurement is costly, takes time, needs to manage fraud and corruption risks, and must meet Queensland Audit Office standards.
Local Buy helps council procurement meet legislative, reputation and compliance needs, simplifying the process by connecting councils to pre-qualified local Queensland suppliers, big and small. This saves time and money reducing councils need to tender, advertise and prepare contracts.
Councils were asking for help with procurement, which is why the LGAQ created Local Buy in 2001. Access to Local Buy is a valuable component of LGAQ membership. The profits from Local Buy are returned each year to the LGAQ and invested to help keep council membership fees low.
Local Buy simplifies the procurement process for councils and government entities across Queensland through these arrangements which save money through aggregated buying (discounts through bulk purchasing) and save time by reducing the cost of going to market for the purchasing of goods and services.
While councils and government entities are not legally bound to use Local Buy, purchasers using Local Buy contractual arrangements are fully compliant with the Local Government Regulation 2012.