Conflict of Interest Management in Tender Evaluation: Obligations and Best Practice

Regulation 24 of S.I. 284/2016 requires contracting authorities to take appropriate measures to effectively prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest arising in the conduct of procurement procedures. A conflict of interest exists where staff involved in the procurement, or those influencing the outcome, have a direct or indirect financial, economic or other personal interest that might compromise their impartiality.

This is an active duty, not a passive one. Contracting authorities cannot simply wait for staff to declare conflicts — they must put in place systems to identify potential conflicts before the procurement begins, and to manage any that arise during evaluation.

All individuals involved in the procurement process must complete a conflict of interest declaration before they access tender submissions. This includes: evaluation panel members; observers; senior officers who receive or act on evaluation recommendations; technical advisers who contribute to specifications or evaluation frameworks; and any external consultants engaged to assist with the procurement.

Declarations should be completed in writing and retained in the procurement file. A generic annual declaration is not sufficient for specific procurements — a new declaration is required for each tender evaluation, so that the evaluator's mind is focused on the specific suppliers tendering.

Where an evaluator declares a conflict with one or more tenderers, they should be recused from that element of the evaluation. Where possible, an alternative evaluator with equivalent expertise should be appointed. If recusal of the evaluator would make the evaluation impractical, the conflict must be disclosed and documented, with mitigating measures (such as an independent review of the affected evaluator's scores) put in place.

Minor conflicts — for example, a social acquaintance who works at a tendering firm — may not require full recusal but should still be documented. The test is whether a reasonable observer would consider the conflict material enough to affect impartiality. When in doubt, escalate to the Head of Procurement or Legal team.

The C&AG regularly notes the absence of conflict of interest declarations as a finding in tender evaluation audits. Best practice is to attach signed declarations from all evaluation panel members to the evaluation record, so that the procurement file shows who evaluated the tenders and that they certified their impartiality before doing so.

GovIQ generates a conflict of interest declaration pack as part of the tender evaluation setup, requiring each evaluator to complete and sign before accessing tender submissions. The signed declarations are timestamped and stored in the audit chain, making the impartiality record part of the immutable procurement file.