(i) Departments should always make it clear to bidders that they will reserve the right to ask them to secure funding through a separate competition. In this way the prospect of a funding competition would remain a credible threat and would help incentivise bidders to offer the keenest terms available in the finance markets. Furthermore, publication is now urgent of long-promised new guidance on this subject by the Office of Government Commerce.
(ii) Whenever a department decides that a funding competition is unlikely to improve value for money, the department should nonetheless take a close interest in bidders' funding arrangements to ensure that the proposed funding arrangements do indeed represent good value.