Three contracts for Aboriginal businesses

Three Aboriginal businesses based in Western Australia, including IPS Management Consultants, have been awarded contracts totalling $1.5 million to help other Aboriginal organisations build capability and win additional commercial work.

Bunbury-based IPS, Broome-based Morrgul and Perth-based collective Keogh Bay People will develop and deliver training programs to Aboriginal businesses across WA, which the state government said would empower them to tender for more government contracts.

The training programs will include information and training on four key topics: tendering skills; business development; internal governance; and contractual compliance requirements.

The three contractors will co-design the programs with indigenous businesses and not-for-profit organisations and ensure the varied needs of Aboriginal entities across the state are met.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt said the additional training and development services would mean indigenous businesses continued to build capacity.

"These programs will improve the ability for local Aboriginal businesses to win work that leads to the creation of job opportunities," he said.

IPS direcrtor Katina Law told Business News last month that the state government’s one-year old Aboriginal Procurement Policy was yet to deliver substantial benefits but she saw potential for it to match the federal government's Indigenous Procurement Policy.

On Monday, the state government announced Aboriginal business Wilco Electrical was awarded a contract to complete various upgrades to 16 corporate suites and two media and race control rooms at Perth Motorplex.

The contract was worth more than $80,000.

Wilco director Frank Mitchell was a Business News 40under40 winner in 2018.

Mid-year reporting by the state government revealed that more than 4 per cent of its contracts have been awarded to registered Aboriginal businesses, which puts it far beyond its target.

The Aboriginal Procurement Policy, introduced in July 2018, requires WA government agencies to award a minimum of 1 per cent of contracts to registered Aboriginal businesses throughout the 2018-19 financial year, increasing to two per cent in 2019-20 and three per cent in 2020-21.

The government report said 74 contracts had been awarded last year to 53 registered Aboriginal businesses, with a value of $25 million.