A quirk of the federal government’s procurement rules for third-party suppliers is that it doesn’t have to go to the market for contracts under $80,000. This is how OpenAI has managed to cinch a $50,000 deal with Treasury without any competition.
The ChatGPT creator’s contract is for 12 months’ work from late June 2025, Crikey first revealed on Wednesday, to provide “software-as-a-service”. We’re told it’s for work for a trial that’s limited to Treasury itself, but it could be rolled out at a larger scale within the department if it’s successful.
