4.6 Permitted Disclosure

As a result of the Government's mandate to restore openness, fairness and transparency to the Government of Victoria, a package of measures was introduced to entrench the principles of open government and probity in Victorian public administration.

One adopted measure was the requirement that all Victorian Government contracts and agreements include a provision for disclosure of contract/agreement information. In view of this mandate, the permitted disclosure clause has been added to all service agreements. The clause is consistent with the department's standard tender documents and allows for exemptions to disclose confidential information as it pertains to trade secrets, and or when it is likely to cause an unreasonable disadvantage, as defined in the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

Note: Confidential information means information exempt within section 34(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as it relates to trade secrets and or unreasonable disadvantage.

Trade secrets

In deciding whether specific information should be categorised as a ‘trade secret’, consider the:

• extent to which it is known outside of your business
• extent to which it is known by the persons engaged in your business
• measures taken to guard its secrecy
• value to your business and to any competitors
• amount of money and effort invested in developing the information
• ease or difficulty with which others may acquire or develop this information.

Unreasonable disadvantage

In determining whether disclosure of specific information will expose the business to an unreasonable disadvantage, consider section 34(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, that is, whether:

• the information is generally available to competitors
• it could be disclosed without causing substantial harm to the competitive position of the business.

Freedom of information

The release of information by the department under a Freedom of Information request is subject to clarification and the knowledge of all affected parties. For example, the release of information about an organisation's employees or volunteers, within the context of them being a third party to the contract/agreement, is not disclosed without their written consent.

The following is an indicative list of contract details that the department generally makes available under Freedom of Information.

Service agreements are considered to fall under this category and, therefore, the following details will be published on the Victorian Government Purchasing Board website at www.vgpb.vic.gov.au (external link)

Department details

• name of department
• organisation (division or region)
• reference (any unique reference number)
• related tender (tender number)
• title (contract purpose)
• description (description of goods and services)
• contract type (categories of purchase of goods/services; operating and financial leases; revenue lease; construction)
• contract amount (value of contract: while $100,000 is the nominal threshold, contracts less than that may be disclosed)
• expires (expiry date)
• organisation contact (departmental contact person)
• phone no (departmental contact person's telephone number)
• email address (departmental contact person's email address)
• full agreement details (if total value greater than $10,000,000).

Supplier details

• DUNS No
• name
• address
• state
• post code
• e-mail address