Investigation into government procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic

Awarding bodies should publish basic information on contracts in a reasonable time, in line with guidance to publish within 90 days of award. Transparency is one of the key controls to mitigate the risks associated with emergency direct awards. Therefore, during these types of situation, it is critical that basic information on contract awards is published as soon as possible.

The Cabinet Office should issue further guidance on specific procurement risks arising from greater use of regulation 32(2)(c). The guidance should build on the lessons government has learned from the use of this regulation during the pandemic to date and in particular cover the levels of transparency and documentation required for key decisions, such as choice of procurement route. The Cabinet Office should continue to monitor the use of regulation 32(2)(c), as part of the decisions that it considers through the Cabinet Office controls process, to ensure any continued use is fully justified, and review the operation of procurement rules to encourage greater use of competitive procedures in extremely urgent procurements.

Awarding bodies should provide clear documentation for establishing and using procedures that may result in unequal treatment of suppliers. While segmenting suppliers based on strength of evidence to deliver can be beneficial in speeding up the procurement process, awarding bodies need to ensure that the criteria for segmenting suppliers is documented, applied consistently and records of each evaluation of supplier’s suitability are kept to support procurement decisions and avoid perceptions of unfair treatment.

When procuring directly from suppliers, awarding bodies need to provide clear documentation on how they have considered and managed potential conflicts of interest or bias in the procurement process. Before awarding contracts, awarding bodies should document due diligence checks carried out on suppliers and associated parties. Steps to manage actual and perceived conflicts of interest, for example those set out in the Ministerial Code and Civil Service Management Code, or other actions taken by awarding bodies should be properly documented.

The Cabinet Office should review whether requirements for disclosure and management of relevant interests are sufficient in cases where public office-holders hold cross-government responsibilities for awarding contracts or procurement. For such cases, the Cabinet Office should take steps to enable departments and other government bodies to identify any potential conflicts of interest by strengthening existing measures in place.