Conroy advises that tenders for the NBN are not a secret

Accusations that he securing of private tenders that were given out to build the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia were done behind closed doors has been denied by the Broadband and Communications minister, Stephen Conroy.

The NBN Co, which is that company that is now responsible for the building of Australia’s NBN is not part of the government but is a privately owned company and it is this fact that has led to a number of tenders that have been issued for the building of the NBN not being listed publicly and this has led to the accusations of secrecy in the handing out of tenders.

A full list of all its tenders would need to have been posted on the government tender website if the NBN Co had been a government run department.

Aurora, the Tasmanian electricity supplier has been one of the third part companies involved in the issuing of tenders to various companies and organisations that had applied for contracts to build the NBN.

The securing of deals behind closed doors was denied by Senator Conroy in a recent interview in which he said “I don’t think these tenders are secret. Australia Post don’t publish their tenders.”

Conroy advised that there is an NBN Co office that can be approached by any company who are look for part of the $43 billion NBN and said
“NBN Co has got an office and everyone knows Mike Quigley is the CEO. All of these are publicly contactable organisations. But these are not government contracts.”

A number of companies had been disappointed that their application for contracts had been unsuccessful said Conroy, although he went on to advise that there were many more contracts to be won before the completion of the NBN.

Source – CRN