15228 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education

15228 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education: Did the Minister inform the Education Minister that awarding the Ka Ora, Ka Ako contract could mean Libelle may make “commitments they are unable to deliver on”?

Hon David Seymour: I believe the member is referring to one part of a sentence in the proactively released Negotiation Plan for Healthy School Lunches Alternative Provision Model, which is available at the following link: https://web-assets.education.govt.nz/s3fs-public/2025-03/negotiation%20plan.pdf?VersionId=2wQA0nPjkcT5gIcLXXelFUBO32PsYe9x The sentence is used to explain a standard procurement power and dependency matrix diagram, which shows that the Ministry (as buyer) is dominant. The full sentence reads: While this means the Ministry will be able to exert that dominance in shaping the supplier’s solution, there is a risk some suppliers may make concessions and/or commitments they are unable to deliver on.” Strategies to address this risk include requiring suppliers to provide detailed explanations of how they will provide all key aspects if their solution and the supporting commercial construct that will allow them to deliver the solution at the $3 price cap.” The assertion in the members question is incorrect. This is also my response to written parliamentary questions 15230, 15231 and 15232 (2025).