Max Harlow rightly points out that sleaze is impossible to clean up (Opinion, December 20) while the quality of public data remains poor, the format antiquated and the timeframes for publication tardy.
In Ukraine or Colombia, for example, all public contracts to procure PPE and medicines to battle the pandemic had to be published within 24 hours of being agreed. In the UK, we’ve had to wait over 100 days for censored copies of contracts to be published, well over the mandatory 30 days set in UK law.
The damage doesn’t stop at undermining public trust and integrity: it’s impossible to co-ordinate a pandemic response or to manage market disruptions with such poor information.
The UK’s proposed new procurement legislation can transform this situation by mandating end-to-end publication of UK procurement and contracts as standardised open data, but it will need political leadership, adequate resourcing and oversight to reap the economic benefits and to enforce standards.
If Ukraine or Colombia can manage it, there really aren’t any excuses for Britain, especially given the pressing need to get better results from the £300bn that we spend on public contracts every year, the single largest area of government spending.
Gavin Hayman
Executive Director
Open Contracting Partnership
Washington, DC, US
