Recommendations
1. The government should implement a robust national procurement strategy which draws on international best practice, including with the introduction of a False Claims Act, and legally enforceable codes of conduct for suppliers.
2. The government should establish an independent procurement Ombudsman with powers to intervene where necessary to ensure contracting authorities and suppliers comply with the new framework.
3. The government should commit to transparency by default throughout the procurement cycle, and ensure that public contractors are subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
4. A fair dispute resolution should be established, and a new procurement Tribunal with specialised procurement judges to hear legal challenges, with the right of non-parties bringing procurement challenges on public interest grounds enshrined.
5. The government should ensure that the exclusion regime is as effective as possible, by ensuring that convictions for fraud as well as failure to prevent bribery and tax evasion are grounds for mandatory exclusion from procurement subject to self-cleaning. The central debarment list and properly resourced centralised function for assessing exclusion decisions, ensuring they are applied on a cross-government basis, and for assessing whether a company has self-cleaned are essential to protect the integrity of public contracting.