THE PROBLEM

Companies and individuals known to be involved with corruption all too easily slip through the global net unnoticed. A corruption conviction in one country is no deterrent or prevention to acting corruptly elsewhere. Criminal sanctions are costly and risky to apply – but administrative sanctions are not.

The threat of exclusion from public contracts is a significant deterrent for companies: a contractor may be more likely to turn away from corruption, fraud, waste and abuse at the start of a bidding process, or decline to bid entirely if that contractor cannot safely and ethically bid for and perform the contract. A debarment sanction can bar a contractor that has already engaged in corruption during a contract from the procurement process for a specified period of time. Excluding corrupt bidders from public procurement is a significant aspect of clean contracting.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE SUMMIT?

At the Anti-Corruption Summit the UK committed to “introduce a conviction check process to prevent corrupt bidders with relevant convictions from winning public contracts, and is committed to exploring ways of sharing such information across borders”.

In the UK’s Anti-Corruption Strategy 2017-2022 reiterates this commitment, stating that a new conviction check would “complement existing provisions in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 requiring proof that bidders don’t have relevant convictions.”