ii.  Trying to maintain a competitive bidding process or, in the absence of this, ensuring adequate benchmarks exist to measure value for money

Wherever possible departments should enter into contracts following a competitive bidding process. In this case competition broke down before priced bids were available because all but two potential bidders withdrew and the Agency rejected one bid. Measuring the value for money from the deal was then made difficult because details of IT service levels were not available against which to measure the outcome of negotiations. When contemplating ventures such as that entered into by the Agency, organisations should consider, as part of the design of the project, establishing existing service levels so that subsequent changes in performance can be measured. (Paragraphs 2.15, 4.19-4.20)