Want to know who won a public contract? The chances are that you never will.
The public never gets to know who won more than 50% of tenders published by Local Government and the NHS according to data on Contracts Finder, the Government’s tender portal. Across the whole of Government 43% of tenders do not have a contract award even though publishing contract award data is a legal requirement.1
Using data taken from Contracts Finder, we have counted up all the tenders that had deadlines more than a year ago and yet are still missing contract award notices. However, because the public sector often uses frameworks, contracts that can be used multiple times by different buyers, the number of contract awards should actually exceed the number of tenders. This means that there are far more contract awards missing, we just can’t know how many.
Central government had the best response rate, publishing 81% of its contract awards. Local government and the NHS fared less well, publishing 48% and 43% of their contract awards respectively. The worst performers were procurement organisations.* These bodies conduct procurement on behalf of multiple public sector buyers, often within a region or a specific sector. Despite being procurement specialists and publishing a high volume of tenders, on average 7 tenders per month, these organisations only published 60% of contract awards.
Buyer type: Procurement organisations
Tenders: 2,778
Missing contracts: 1,654
Percent missing: 59.5%
Buyer type: NHS
Tenders: 3,021
Missing contracts: 1,720
Percent missing: 56.9%
Buyer type: Local Government
Tenders: 17,408
Missing contracts: 9,127
Percent missing: 52.4%
Buyer type: Emergency Services
Tenders: 405
Missing contracts: 117
Percent missing: 28.9%
Buyer type: Higher Education
Tenders: 5,847
Missing contracts: 1,678
Percent missing: 28.7%
Buyer type: Other
Tenders: 7,996
Missing contracts: 1,661
Percent missing: 20.8%
Buyer type: Central Government
Tenders: 8,368
Missing contracts: 1,625
Percent missing: 19.4%
Of the buyers who published over 20 tenders, 11 have published no contract awards and only 11 have published a contract award for every tender.
Buyers with no contract awards:
BRITISH LIBRARY
DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY
EAST MIDLANDS STRATEGIC COMMERCIAL UNIT
EPSOM AND ST HELIER UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST
KING’S COLLEGE LONDON
SAINT HELENA GOVERNMENT
SALISBURY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL
STAFFORDSHIRE AND LANCASHIRE COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT
UNIVERSITY OF DERBY
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Buyers with an award for every tender:
CABINET OFFICE
DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE
HIGHWAYS ENGLAND
INDEPENDENT POLICE COMPLAINTS COMMISSION
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE
LONDON FIRE BRIGADE
SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE
SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY
STEVENAGE BOROUGH COUNCIL
UK HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE
Conclusions
There is a significant shortfall in the publishing of contract awards and the failure to publish is widespread. Publishing rates vary significantly across different types of buying organisation, which indicates that 100% publishing could be attained, were buyers sufficiently motivated to publish this data. Clearly the legal mandate to publish is insufficient to improve publishing rates.
Perhaps it is time to consider introducing a law similar to the one adopted in Slovakia where a contract is invalid unless openly published within three months of being signed.2 This law has had a positive impact on corruption, saving public money while improving the business climate. The data has been used by citizens, journalists and public servants, thereby improving transparency.
Methodology
This analysis was conducted on the 1st and 2nd of November, 2017. We gather tender and contract data from the Contracts Finder API daily. To begin this analysis, we counted the tenders published on Contracts Finder and contract awards linked to the original tender on Contracts Finder, 365 days after the original tender was published, covering the period from March 2014 to October 2016. We linked this to public sector entities and added buyer types to all these entities that had published over 20 tenders in the period analysed.
*Procurement Organisations
EAST MIDLANDS STRATEGIC COMMERCIAL UNIT
EASTERN SHIRES PROCUREMENT ORGANISATION
LOCAL GOVERNMENT SHARED SERVICES
NHS SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES
NORTH EAST PROCUREMENT ORGANISATION
NORTH OF ENGLAND COMMERCIAL PROCUREMENT COLLABORATIVE
SOUTH EAST SHARED SERVICES
SOUTH OF ENGLAND PROCUREMENT SERVICES
UK SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES LTD
WELLAND PROCUREMENT UNIT
WEST YORKSHIRE COMBINED AUTHORITY
YORKSHIRE PROCUREMENT ORGANISATION
