Government transparency

Public Procurement in Scotland: The case for scrutiny, accountability and transparency

Stephen Richard — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 21:42:14 +0000

Public Procurement in Scotland: The case for scrutiny, accountability and transparency

Primary Author or Creator

Margaret Cuthbert

Stephen Richard Mon, 09/06/2021 - 22:42

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Tue, 05/09/2017 - 12:00

Category

Scottish government

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Leading economist Margaret Cuthbert draws on 15 years of research on Scottish public procurement in making the case that procurement in Scotland is shrouded in secrecy and wide-ranging reforms are needed to ensure transparency and accountability.

More details

― Why is it that our public representatives are signing up to contracts where the public cannot see the terms of the contract? In the few cases where we have finally been given access to a contract and its financial model, we have found serious problems.

― Why is it, in the cases concerning public procurement, we continually have to resort to Freedom of Information requests which is time consuming, rarely frees the information requested on major public procurement projects, and of no benefit in regard to getting changes made in any existing contract? Helpful answers to requests for information concerning contracts and financial models have rarely been forthcoming.

― The third issue concerns the very powerful role that is being played by the Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) and the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) in the public procurement of major projects. The SFT, set up in 2008, is a private company. It now has a major role in Scotland’s public sector build, maintenance and servicing of projects. Its presence in the procurement chain has resulted in the public finding it difficult, if not impossible, to scrutinise the decision-making process on the facility being built; the process of handing out contracts; the financial aspects of the contract; the effect that the project will have on the local community including on jobs, and on local businesses; and importantly the long term effect this is having on Scotland’s financial well-being and the ownership of what was once regarded as essential public goods.

― There appears to be no analysis of whether the methods now being used for public procurement of major projects are constructed in such a way that local businesses are missing out on the architectural work, on the maintenance and services work, and, for example, potentially innovative work that could lead to other contracts. Local businesses are involved but are far down the food chain and may not be in as advantageous a position as is desirable for them to grow and develop as they might otherwise have done.

― The fifth issue considered concerns the methods used by the Scottish Government, Health Boards, Prisons, and Local Authority Councils to raise finance for public procurement. The lack of Whole of Government Accounts for Scotland means that we have no idea what the effect on Scotland’s long term level of debt will be from these projects.

― The final issue concerns the need for a strengthening of the role which needs to be played by the relevant Parliamentary Committees in dealing with economic and financial issues.

― This paper is based on what information has been made available through published documents and through Freedom of Information and other requests on each of the above six areas. It draws on research carried out by Jim Cuthbert and I over the past 15 years.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Public-Procurement-in-Scotla…

Keywords

Scottish public procurement

Public procurement

Freedom of Information

Scottish Futures Trust

Public procurement finance

Government transparency

Accountability of government

Government accountability

Language English

Open Government Note: Transparency in Public Finance – the role of good data

Stephen Richard — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 16:53:26 +0000

Open Government Note: Transparency in Public Finance – the role of good data

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Mon, 09/06/2021 - 17:53

Date Published

Fri, 10/20/2017 - 12:00

Category

Scottish government

Fast Facts

This Common Weal note examines how an Open Government approach to Public Finance data can improve its usability and transparency for citizens.

More details

― There are two primary issues with data for the public and for transparency – trust and usability. The former of these is crucial.

― Making numbers have meaning for people should be the primary public-facing aim of public data. But this should also carry an additional element – regular work should be done to systematically identify what information the public wants from public data.

― As a substantial user of public data, Common Weal regularly comes across the issue of comprehensiveness and consistency. Put very simply, often Scotland lacks crucial data because it is collected from across government rather than being coordinated by a central body.

― There should be a single portal for Scottish public sector data. This would clearly be aided by a single statistics agency. However, there is very widely varying practice out there on the presentation of data to the public – and clearly for openness the better and easier the presentation the more likely people are to feel data is useable.

― Almost everyone involved with public data will have had some experience of ‘obstructionism’ in gaining access to public data. Whether it is failure to publish, denial of Freedom of Information requests, use of ‘commercial confidentiality’ clauses, refusal to disaggregate date or provide methodologies or claims that ‘personal data’ can be inferred from larger data sources, there has simply been far too much ‘that’s for us to know and you to not know’ practice.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Open-Government-Note-Transpa…

Keywords

Open government

Public finance

Government transparency

statistics collection

Public data

Language English

Transparency in Public Finance – the role of good data

Stephen Richard — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 10:41:28 +0000

Transparency in Public Finance – the role of good data

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Thu, 09/02/2021 - 11:41

Date Published

Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:00

Category

Scottish government

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

― There are two primary issues with data for the public and for transparency – trust and usability. The former of these is crucial.

More details

Who benefits? One of the biggest issues of trust and data relates to 'who benefits?'. There is an enormous amount of public expenditure but it is not always easy to identify (a) who's pockets it ends up in and (b) whose interests the expenditure serves. This should be addressed by attaching to every piece of legislation or spending decision (over a certain threshold) a statement of who benefits (directly and indirectly) and by how much. Which private companies receive direct payment for delivery? This can then be checked against the lobbying register to identify whether they've sought to influence the decision that led to them receiving the money. Which interest groups benefit and by how much? Every sectoral lobby seeks to persuade us that what is good for them is good for everyone – so this should be publicly counted, How good is it for you in hard money terms? How good is it for everyone else in hard money terms? If government is making public-good decisions in an open and honest way, it should not only have no objection to this information but should positively welcome it.

Keywords

Government transparency

Government data

Public data

Public sector data

Language English

Creating a Glass Wall Government

Stephen Richard — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 10:20:54 +0000

Creating a Glass Wall Government

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal, Craig Dalzell

Stephen Richard Sat, 07/31/2021 - 11:20

Date Published

Tue, 07/27/2021 - 12:00

Category

Scottish government

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Transparency on the influences and lobbyists upon the Scottish government and MSPs needs to be strengthened.

More details

The first step to reversing the current trends of opaque government is to sort out the process of showing us who is talking to them. The Scottish Lobbying Register needs to be strengthened. How?

In the first instance, the Register only covers face-to-face meetings so anything said over the phone is exempt. The same is true for internet video calls assuming you turn your camera off.

Second, if the meeting is initiated by the politicians in question, any lobbying that takes place is exempt. I discovered this one while trying to register a meeting with a Minister a few years ago and had to press them to include it anyway because we’d much rather “over-register” our lobbying than hide behind exemptions.

Finally, there is a blanket exemption for all lobbying done by organisations who employ fewer than 10 Full Time Equivalent staff. It raises the question of how many other small (but powerful) organisations lean on this exemption to hide who they’re speaking to in Government.

The current Freedom of Information laws are woefully inadequate. The FOI itself should be reformed into a “Glass Wall” whereby all information that could normally be disclosed via FOI should simply be proactively published on a public website.

Scottish public bodies are often governed by boards that are either packed by the industries that they are supposed to be governing or that there is a “revolving door” between civil servants and those sectors creating an unhealthy relationship of tight cliques who know precisely who to call to get their way with things. We should also consider a “Stakeholder” model of governance for other sectors like financial or environmental regulation. This kind of Participatory Governance has been shown to provide much better outcomes for everyone

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/creating-a-glass-wall-government/

Keywords

Government transparency

Public Boards

Scottish Lobbying Register

Freedom of Information

Language English