Major events & festivals charity partnership expression of interest

Terms and conditions

By participating in the expression of interest process, participants acknowledge and accept the following terms and conditions.

1. General

• Respondents selected through this expression of interest process will become the appointed charity partner as follows:
  • 2023 Sydney Christmas, with option to extend to cover the 2024 event
  • 2023 Sydney New Year’s Eve, with option to extend to cover the 2024 event
  • 2024 Sydney Lunar Festival, with option to extend to cover the 2025 event.
• Respondents must not make any statements to the media about the expression of interest process and/or the events without prior approval from the City of Sydney. If respondents or other personnel involved in the expression of interest process are contacted by the media, they must first contact the City of Sydney before providing any response.

2. Expression of interest procedure

By submitting an expression of interest, the respondent acknowledges that:

• the City of Sydney at its absolute discretion reserves the right to accept or reject any expression of interest
• the City of Sydney at its absolute discretion reserves the right to reject the offer of any respondent who has any unresolved disputes with the City of Sydney
• any costs incurred by respondents in any way associated with the preparation and submission of this expression of interest, will be entirely borne by the respondent
• no legal or other obligations will arise between a respondent and the City of Sydney unless or until formal documentation has been signed.

3. Information and enquiries

• Where a respondent has any doubt about the meaning of any aspect of the expression of interest, the respondent must make enquiries about and clarify matters with the City of Sydney’s nominated contact person. All enquiries about the expression of interest must be made in writing by email to the City of Sydney's procurement representative.
• All communications related to this expression of interest should be addressed to the City of Sydney’s nominated contact person and not to other City of Sydney employees or other persons.

4. Respondent not to solicit City of Sydney personnel

• Respondents (or any representative of a respondent) must not at any time before the City of Sydney makes a final decision to accept a submission, contact or interview or attempt to interview or discuss, or attempt to discuss with Council members, employees, authorised representatives other than the City of Sydney's nominated contact person any matter about the expression of interest or any other expression of interest submitted in response to the expression of interest. The City of Sydney reserves the right to reject any submission which contravenes this condition.
• For clarity, a representative of a respondent, for the purpose of this condition, includes a person or other legal entity who acts at the request of a respondent or its agent. Also, this condition does not prevent ordinary business or other contact arising from or pertaining to City of Sydney functions (so long as that contact is not used to interview or attempt to interview or to discuss or to attempt discussion on any matter relating to the expression of interest).

5. Returnable information

• Respondents must complete all parts of the online form.
• The City of Sydney may reject any respondents expression of interest which does not provide all the required information.

6. Lodgement of expression of interest

• Submissions must be submitted using the online form by Tuesday 9 May 2023 at 11:59pm Sydney time.

7. Acceptance of expression of interest

• The City of Sydney reserves the right to select charities for one or more events.
• If the City of Sydney accepts an expression of interest, it will issue a notification to the preferred respondent. This notification does not create a contract with the respondent(s). The City of Sydney and preferred respondent(s) are legally bound only when a written contract is executed by the parties. Lodgement of an expression of interest will itself be an acknowledgement and representation by the respondent that it agrees to comply with the contract in its entirety.
• The City of Sydney reserves the right to not proceed with any response submitted through the expression of interest process, and/or to source charities outside the expression of interest process.

8. Charity partner agreement

• Successful respondents will enter into a Charity Partner Agreement with the City of Sydney to formalise the engagement. View the draft agreement:

• No amendments to contract conditions will be accepted.
• Successful respondents are responsible for obtaining public liability insurance (minimum of $20 million per occurrence) and workers compensation insurance, in line with the agreement.

9. Conflict of interest

• “Conflict of interest” means an actual or potential pecuniary or non-pecuniary conflict of interest (see the City of Sydney code of conduct for further explanation of these terms).
• Respondents must disclose any conflict of interest in undertaking the requirements of the specifications and contract. Where a respondent has a conflict of interest, the respondent must provide the City of Sydney in writing with detailed information about the nature and scope of the conflict of interest and include details of any arrangements proposed to resolve or manage the conflict of interest should the respondent be awarded the contract. Based on the information provided by the respondent, the City of Sydney will make the final decision regarding the respondents conflict of interest. If a conflict of interest is not disclosed by a respondent and the City of Sydney then becomes aware of the conflict, respondents may be excluded from this expression of interest and/or any future process by which the City of Sydney is seeking the provision of goods or services.
• More information about the City of Sydney’s requirements of respondents regarding how to submit an expression of interest, frequently asked questions and ethical business conduct can be found on the City of Sydney website.

10. No business in abuse

• Respondents are advised that the City of Sydney has resolved to adopt the ‘No Business In Abuse’ pledge and is currently reviewing the implementation of the pledge in the context of its procurement policies. If and to the extent this review results in a change to the City of Sydney's existing procurement practice and such change affects this procurement process an addendum will be issued to all respondents. For the information of respondents, the pledge provides that all companies should:
  1. have zero tolerance for child abuse
  2. respect people's fundamental rights to freedom from arbitrary and indefinite detention
  3. not treat people in a cruel, inhumane or degrading manner
  4. commit to transparency and independent monitoring to ensure these principles are upheld.

11. Assessment criteria

• Submissions will be examined and evaluated in line with the criteria detailed in the expression of interest. Each of the mandatory evaluation criteria listed above is critical to this expression of interest. They are not of equal weight for evaluation and are not listed in order of priority.
• Respondents’ compliance on each of the mandatory evaluation criteria will be separately evaluated using the following evaluation rating scale:
  
  

  Score rating	Description
  90 – 100	No risk, excellent response with added value and innovation
  80 – 89	No risk, excellent response
  70 – 79	Very low risk, good response
  60 – 69	Low risk, good response
  50 – 59	Low risk, acceptable response
  40 – 49	Medium risk, but acceptable response



• If a respondent receives a score of less than 40 in any one mandatory assessment criteria, that respondent will be deemed non-compliant and will not be recommended for acceptance by the City of Sydney.
• The City of Sydney may undertake financial assessments of respondents to determine their financial capacity to undertake the works under the contract. This may be undertaken by a third party appointed by the City of Sydney.
• On request the respondent must provide recent year’s financial information which may include financial statements (profit and loss, balance sheets and notes) and management accounts/financial statements.