Recommendation 17

Our February 2021 report found that for fast procurements where there is no competition, it is important that awarding bodies document why they have chosen a supplier and how any associated risks from a lack of competition have been identified and managed, and that transparency also helps to ensure accountability for procurement decisions, particularly when no competition is involved. We have regularly highlighted instances of poor record keeping and late publication of contracts. For example, of the 1,644 contracts awarded across government up to the end of July 2020 with a value above 31 Qq 16, 35, 37, 45, 89 32 Q 35 33 C&AG’s Report, para 36 34 Qq 75, 78–79 35 Committee of Public Accounts, COVID-19: Government procurement and supply of Personal Protective Equipment, para 2; C&AG’s report, Investigation into government procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic, Session 2019–21, HC 959, 26 November 2020, paras 10, 11 36 Committee of Public Accounts, Fifth Annual Report of the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, HC 222, Session 2019–21, 24 May 2021 16 Initial lessons from the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic £25,000, 75% were not published on Contracts Finder within the government’s 90-day target and 55% had not had their details published by 10 November 2020.37 We asked the witnesses how government can be more transparent about its contracts and the awarding of contracts while still working at pace. The Cabinet Office accepted that proper record keeping of how government had taken decision was “important for public confidence and trust and for being able to demonstrate good value for money over time”. It explained that government had accelerated efforts to publish its contracts in a “very timely way” and acknowledged that most, but not all, contracts had yet been published. In its letter to us after our evidence session, the Cabinet Office stated that it had now published all of its contracts awarded under emergency procurement regulations, but