45. Conclusion: Government's current approach to contracting gives too much advantage to contractors.
46. We acknowledge that it is not easy task to keep pace with the commercial and negotiating expertise of the private sector, and deal with large companies that dominate certain markets. In this section we make the point that there is still a great deal of scope for government to rebalance power in favour of the taxpayer. It can do more, for example, to improve the way it monitors performance, exploit open book access to companies, avoid excess profits at the taxpayer's expense, and ensure that spending the taxpayer's pound brings with it an expectation of greater transparency.