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Rob Williams of Monckton Chambers has been quoted in the Financial Times article CBI attacks suppliers ‘blacklist’ today.
The article discusses a Cabinet Office initiative to prevent underperforming suppliers from winning fresh government outsourcing contracts by putting them on a list of companies considered to be ‘high risk.’
Rob Williams is quoted as saying:
‘The general principle that runs through procurement laws is that there should be open competition for contracts. A public authority can apply qualification standards for particular contracts such as technical capabilities, but that’s a long way from a general blacklist. There are also specific negative reasons you can use to reject bidders…but past performance doesn’t really fit into those rules.’