Skip to main content
Ministry of Education New Zealand
Property and building
On this page

Key dates for GETS

The Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS) will be online during the end of year period. However, the following restrictions apply.

DetailsDates

GETS Coordinators (TPHM Procurement inbox) unavailable for:

• reviewing and publishing tenders

• unlocking GETS e-tender boxes

• procurement officer registrations

• answering procurement queries.

Monday 16 December 2024 –

Friday 3 January 2025

GETS Helpdesk (MBIE) unavailable.3pm Tuesday 24 December 2024 – Friday 3 January 2025
Dates not to be counted as business days for the purpose of calculating the minimum period for publication of tenders.

Monday 16 December 2024 –

Friday 3 January 2025

Property procurement timeframes

Please refer to the following school property procurement timeframes over the end of year period. Schools and project managers acting for schools must follow the below tendering timeframes as the end of year holiday period affects all suppliers across both Ministry-led and school-led infrastructure projects.

This guidance contains information for both Ministry-led and school-led property procurements.

The purpose of these cut-off periods is to ensure:

  • there is enough time to plan and execute the release and management of tenders
  • the construction industry has a reasonable period to respond to tenders, during a time when capacity/availability is a challenge for them and their sub-contractors/consultants (including accounting for illness following a busy year), and
  • bottlenecks for tendering are minimised, where possible.

Keep in mind that the end of year period is a very busy time. Please allow contingency beyond these set timeframes where possible, especially if your contract is non-standard and requires bespoke drafting.

All tenders that will be open over the December 2024 to January 2025 period must include information on the dates when the procurement officer will be unavailable.

It is recommended that tenders published in December 2024 or January 2025 are open three weeks longer than the minimum requirement to increase the potential of receiving the optimal number of quality responses.

The last two weeks in December 2024 are reserved for the most urgent contracts and some site mobilisation pre-Christmas.

Ministry-led and school-led procurements

Tendering timeframes

 WhatDeadline
Contract to be executed in 2024Last day to release a direct/closed tender for a 3910/3916/complex CCCSMonday 30 September 2024
Last day to release a direct/closed tender for anything elseMonday 21 October 2024
Contract to be executed in 2025Last day for a procurement plan to be fully approved for a tender to be released in 2024Friday 6 December 2024
Last day for a tender to be released in 2024Thursday 12 December 2024
First day for a tender to be released in 2025Tuesday 21 January 2025
Last day for a tender to close in 2024Thursday 12 December 2024
First day a tender can close in 2025Friday 31 January 2025
Last day for site visits in 2024Friday 13 December 2024
First day a site visit can occur in 2025 (unless agreed otherwise with all suppliers)Tuesday 28 January 2025
  • ‘Tender’ includes all direct source, closed and open procurements (whether RFQ, RFP or RFT).
  • Alongside the above, there are mandatory closure periods for GETS and site visits to recognise the shutdown period across the industry.
  • These recommendations are based on current average turnarounds across the country.

Special note on school-led procurement exemptions

Except in the case of an emergency (i.e. major weather event, earthquake, significant fire, etc.) school-led exemptions will not be processed from 1 December 2024 until 10 January 2025.

All property projects needing completion over the summer school holidays should already be in planning phase and put out to tender as per the dates advised above. Urgent procurement exemptions will be processed up to Friday 29 November 2024.

Please note that a failure to plan for this period does not constitute an urgent procurement.

Questions and feedback

Email: [email protected]

Latest News