Senator Johnston asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, upon notice, on 27 June 2012: With reference to procurement procedures undertaken by the department to implement the following initiatives: appointing independent probity advisors for all significant, complex procurements, establishing a Centre of Excellence to support a more robust and consistent commercial approach to Non-Equipment Procurement (NEP), establishing the position of Non-Equipment Chief Procurement Officer (NECPO) on 1 July 2010, to provide high-level advice and assistance to all groups and services, and to endorse all NEP spending proposals valued over $1 million as a pre-requisite to proposal approval, scoping a whole-of-portfolio sourcing approach for various categories of NEP, establishing a working group of NEP stakeholders to coordinate and resolve issues arising from the implementation of the new arrangements, launching a new NEP website on 17 August 2010, providing a single access point for policy and process guidance, establishing a single, simple procurement business centre on 1 February 2011, into which all simple procurements will be transitioned over the next 2 years, the application of a gate review process for major acquisition projects across the department, focussing on important procurement process and probity issues relevant to a particular ‘gate’, the engagement of expert procurement teams with lead responsibility for major acquisition projects, the agreement and implementation of a NEP category management model for specific types of NEP, the introduction of implementation status reporting requirements for all major NEPs, improved stakeholder advice and assistance services, including publication of the Defence annual procurement plan on AusTender to provide greater transparency of planned NEPs, and an advisory role for the NECPO in the drafting of tender documentation, publishing on AusTender and evaluating tenders, and implementing strategies for the recruitment and retention of suitably skilled procurement professionals. (1) Which of the above initiatives have been fully implemented and on what dates. (2) Have any of the above initiatives not yet been fully implemented; if so, which initiatives and why.