Procurement and tenders | Hamilton City Council

A guide to procurement at Council

Procurement at Hamilton City Council is a key lever in unlocking our city’s potential.

Through thoughtful, transparent, and inclusive procurement, we aim to deliver real value for our community. Our goal is to help make Hamilton Kirikiriroa the best place to live.

Download our Procurement guide for suppliers and our community

How we choose suppliers

Council works with almost 2000 suppliers to keep our city running, and to improve and add to its assets and infrastructure.

In procuring products and services, we consider price, but also the environmental, social, cultural, and economic benefits that can be generated.

We choose suppliers in the following ways:

a preferred supplier process
a competitive tender process
quotes (if the value is below $75,000, staff can obtain multiple quotes from local companies and do not need to go through a formal tender process).

If you’re supplying goods or services

You must complete onboarding through our Eftsure process and accept our standard Purchase Order terms and conditions before delivering any goods or services.

Eftsure supplier verification

Hamilton City Council uses Eftsure to verify payments we make to suppliers. This platform helps Hamilton City Council securely pay our suppliers using the right bank details.

By using Eftsure’s third-party supplier verification, we make sure the outgoing payments can’t be intercepted by cybercriminals or fraudsters.

If you have received a request from Hamilton City Council to validate your details through Eftsure, you must complete the verification process.

Contact us at supplier@hcc.govt.nz or email support@Eftsure.com.au if you have any questions about Eftsure.

Frequently asked questions

What is Eftsure?

Eftsure is a business to business (B2B) payment protection service that we use to streamline and protect our supplier onboarding process. Whether a threat originates from within our organisation, a supplier or a third-party organisation, Eftsure helps protect our supplier base and reduces the risk of payment error, fraud attempts and cyber-crime. Eftsure’s alert system helps us avoid paying fraudsters instead of the correct recipients, lowering your risk of delayed payment.

What is our verification process?

Depending on whether the supplier has already been verified by our payment protection partner, Eftsure, you may receive a digital invitation linking to an online form. This process, powered by Eftsure, helps make verification easier and minimises the legwork of ad hoc documentation requests or paperwork. It also helps protect your company and Hamilton City Council from cybercrime attempts.

Can I skip Eftsure and still be a Council Supplier?

No. To protect our supplier base and reduce the risk of payment error, all suppliers must be verified through the Eftsure process. If a supplier refuses, they will not be approved as a supplier.

Do existing suppliers still need Eftsure?

If you’re an existing supplier to Hamilton City Council, you might still need to register with Eftsure. This is to protect both of our organisations from risks like external cybercrime and employee error during the payment process. Once your details are verified by Eftsure, you will not need to be re-verified with any of your other customers who use Eftsure’s solution, although other companies may choose to request additional information or documentation.

Is it safe to share my bank details with Eftsure?

Yes. Eftsure follows best practices for securing data and its systems. It has been vetted by numerous industry leaders and is regularly audited and penetration-tested by external security specialists. Find out more at Eftsure’s website.

How can I safely share and verify my account info?

The communications you receive will include a link to register with Eftsure. The process asks you to submit details like your NZBN, trading name and company address, as well as asking you to confirm payment information. You’ll have two options for confirming your bank account details:

Online verification tool (bank link): This allows you to select your relevant bank account details from your bank without you needing to enter in the bank account details manually. Suppliers can securely and automatically verify their payment details through the Eftsure Bank Link (Yodlee) option, where the underlying financial system is leveraged to securely verify the Supplier’s nominated account name and account number against the New Zealand Business Register and New Zealand Business Numbers. The supplier credentials are not seen or stored by anyone at Eftsure, Yodlee or your customer’s organisation. (If the account name does not match your registered business name, you may still receive a phone call for security purposes.)

Phone call: One of our fraud verification analysts will contact you and undertake an initial screening validation process related to information on the submitted online form. The fraud verification analysts will then complete a two-way, interactive account number verification process to verify the account number, account name and other details about your business.