At Wednesday's ordinary May meeting, council unanimously approved the recommendation by ARC manager of financial services Kelly Stidworthy that the revised policy goes on public exhibition.

An emotional Clr Debra O'Brien thanked the general manager and staff.

"A policy that encourages the use of local businesses including Aboriginal businesses is important to stimulate the economy, but it also has its impact in so many ways in terms of population growth, people health, crime, and a whole list of things," she said.

"When you ensure your local community comes first when it comes to choosing workers, the impact is phenomenal.

"It was actually my greatest wish when I got on to council that there would be a policy like this, so thank you very much."

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In her report to the council, Ms Stidworthy said council is committed to contributing to local and community economic development, social and sustainability outcomes through its procurement processes.

"Council will consider the selection of products or services that maximise these outcomes provided other evaluation criteria are met," she said.

"Council will support local suppliers through its Local Preference Tier System and Local and Community Evaluation Weighting Criteria."

If the expenditure is less than $2001, local suppliers will be considered where possible and where value for money can be demonstrated.

When it is between $2001 and $25000, local suppliers will be given a five percent price concession, and when expenditure is greater than $25000 local and community criteria will be a mandatory part of the assessment, and a 10 percent local and community weighting will be given in the evaluation criteria.

Ms Stidworthy said the key purpose of a procurement process is to ensure that the these principles are applied and that goods and services purchased on behalf of the council represent value for money and are fit for purpose.

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"Accountability and transparency of procurement activities are important to ensure that the community is able to have confidence in the use of public funding," she said.

"Establishing a policy position on these matters ensures that there are clearly established rules around how procurement will be undertaken by officers on behalf of the council, and this is visible to both the public and also stakeholders in the procurement process.

"Council staff will be encouraged to work with suppliers; local Aboriginal owned businesses and local Aboriginal representative bodies early in the planning stages of procurement activities to identify effective ways of increasing Aboriginal participation in contracts."

Clr Peter Bailey asked the general manager to conduct a public seminar in the coming months to share the revised procurement and tendering process with local businesses and explain how to do business with the council.

The updated Armidale Regional Council Procurement Policy will go on public exhibition next week.

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