Response to COVID-19 Procurement Report

As a coalition of some of the UK’s leading public integrity and accountability NGOs, we welcome the release of the Public Accounts Committee’s report into procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As anti-corruption experts who have made recommendations on procurement reform, we support the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee, and reiterate those made in our submission to the Committee, that the Government should:

• End the high-priority lane, if it has not done so already.

• Return to open competition as soon as possible, if it has not done so already, and make this clear to the public.

• Conduct a full public review of lessons learned from emergency procurement in the pandemic, including the use of the high-priority lane, the robustness of due diligence processes, and the rationale for emergency procurement procedures being used for non-emergency procurement, to ensure that future pandemic responses will be based on best practice.

• Carry out a full investigation of and provide accountability for any underperformance by contractors, including ensuring funds are clawed back from underperformers.

• Explore bilateral and multilateral approaches to securing trusted supplies of high-demand equipment, such as PPE, in any future pandemic preparedness plans to avoid high-risk approaches to prioritisation.