If you tender for or deliver work for a NSW agency or council, conflict of interest is your problem to manage too. Michael helps contractors, subcontractors and consultants get their declarations, disclosures and policies right — before they become someone else's finding.
Most conflicts on government work are not scandals. They are ordinary commercial facts — a shared director, a related-party subcontractor, an estimator who used to work at the agency, a scoping job that turned into a bid. Almost all of them can be managed. What causes the damage is a conflict that surfaces after the decision has been made, because by then it looks like concealment.
Michael acts for the private side of government projects: head contractors and tier 2 and 3 civil businesses, subcontractors carrying flow-down obligations, and engineering and consulting firms whose sharpest exposure is scoping or specifying work they later want to bid for. The work is practical — read the declaration, map the relationships, write the disclosure, put a policy in place that your bid team will actually use.
He is an engineer turned solicitor who has worked on Transport for NSW infrastructure projects, so the engineering and delivery side of government work is familiar ground. Michael handles every matter personally. Fixed fees are available where applicable, and you get a written costs agreement before any work begins.
Based at Norwest and acting for businesses across Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill and the Hills District, Western Sydney and throughout NSW — in person, by phone or by video.
Tell Michael what the arrangement is and where you are in the process. This is a short introductory call to work out whether the firm can assist and what the next step would look like — it is not advice on your matter.
A written costs agreement before any work starts, with the scope set out plainly — a one-off declaration review, a full conflicts framework, or acting for you on a live query.
Disclosure drafted in writing, the agency's response captured, and a policy and register you can point to next time. Documentation is what protects the business twelve months later.
Usually, yes. Conflict of interest and probity obligations are commonly flowed down through subcontracts, and you may be asked to sign a declaration in your own right. Separately, the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988 (NSW) defines corrupt conduct to include conduct by any person — whether or not a public official — that could adversely affect the honest or impartial exercise of official functions. Being further down the contractual chain does not put you outside the frame.
Yes, and that is the most useful time to do it. A pre-tender review looks at the declaration you are about to sign, maps the relationships between your people and the agency, checks any related-party subcontracting you intend to use, and identifies what should be disclosed and how to word it. Reviewing a declaration before it is lodged is far cheaper than explaining one afterwards.
They are different roles. A probity adviser or probity auditor is typically engaged to provide independent assurance over a procurement process, and is often appointed by the agency running it. Michael Campbell Law acts for your business, as your lawyer. That means advice given to you in confidence and directed at protecting your position — not independent assurance provided to the agency.
Preserve your records exactly as they are, avoid sending an off-the-cuff reply, and check your professional indemnity and directors' and officers' policies — these often require early notification of circumstances and may cover the cost of responding. Then get advice before you respond. The first written answer tends to frame everything that follows.
What the rules actually require of private contractors, where the statutory limits sit, and why declaring early is the cheap option.
Read article →How subcontractors can use the Security of Payment regime to recover progress payments without going to court.
Read article →Whether you are about to lodge a tender or already have a query on your desk, the first conversation is a free 15-minute phone call — no cost, no obligation, and a straight answer on whether we can help.