CIC welcomes new public procurement proposals

CIC has welcomed the new measures to make public procurement more transparent and ban slow paying contractors from public work. The procedures were announced by Minister for Implementation, Oliver Dowden MP earlier this week in the wake of the Carillion collapse. It is proposed that tier one contractors on Government let contracts will have to make evident "fair and effective payment practices with their subcontractors" if they want to bid for Government let work. Not being able to demonstrate these payment practices will lead to them being prohibited from bidding for the work. They will also be required to advertise subcontracting opportunities on the Governments Contracts Finder and report their spend with smaller businesses to improve visibility.

CIC Chairman Prof. John Nolan commented that he was "delighted with this initiative. The Carillion collapse with the reported £7bn. liabilities has highlighted the huge extent to which subcontractors and consultants are funding the industry. If Carillion had been forced to comply with the Construction Supply Chain Payment Charter the enormous harm that it's collapse has done to its supply chain would have been considerably reduced."

He went on to say that "In order for this initiative to work there will need to be an organisation set up that can monitor compliance, evaluate complaints and hold a register of non-compliant organisations."