Background
Government spends hundreds of billions of pounds each year on contracts that deliver public services, infrastructure and other activities. Effective management of these contracts is essential to securing value for money for taxpayers.
Government bodies face a range of risks associated with contracting, including supplier overcharging, contractual non-compliance, fraud, misconduct and poor supplier performance. Understanding and addressing these risks is important to reducing losses and ensuring value for money.
The government is also implementing the Procurement Act 2023 and increasing its use of data and digital tools to improve how contracts are managed. These changes present further opportunities for public bodies to reduce their contracting losses.
Scope
This report will examine how government can improve the way it identifies, prevents and responds to losses in its contracts.
We will consider:
- how government bodies can improve their understanding of the scale and nature of losses in contracts, so they can better target prevention
- how government bodies can improve prevention, detection and recovery of loss through effective contract management
- whether the Government Commercial Function, Public Sector Fraud Authority and Cabinet Office are effectively promoting best practice to help government bodies manage and minimise contracting losses
- whether government is well placed to harness the Procurement Act 2023 to better manage losses in contracting.
NAO team
Director: Joshua Reddaway
Senior Audit Manager: Christopher Barrett