Open Book Accounting and Supply Chain Assurance (July 2015) - The private sector case studies set out in the report showed client scrutiny of the supply chain was expected by suppliers, and that good contract managers saw it as their job to be inquisitive about what their suppliers are delivering. However less than a third of government contracts have open book clauses and few government bodies have a policy on when to include open book accounting in a contract. The most frequently-cited limitation of open book accounting was the skills and resources to use it well.
Accountability to Parliament for Taxpayers' Money (February 2016) This report shows how outsourcing is one of the developments complicating accountability across government. It highlights PAC's expectation that senior managers in providers will be personally accountable for performance alongside accounting officers.
Latest PAC report Public Accounts Committee: Transforming contract management progress review (March 2016) - Government must strengthen the way it holds providers to account and protects vulnerable service users. Government should be clear providers will be held to account by Parliament and have this codified in contracts. |