Government ‘has more to do’ to ensure transparency among officials – watchdog

The Government must do more to ensure public officials are transparent about conflicts of interest or risk “undermining” the view they are objective, ministers have been warned.

Public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) has found in a survey that only 40% of Government departments, agencies and other public bodies require all their staff to declare interests annually.

New transparency guidance was published in June 2022 in response to concerns about propriety in Government during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the time, concerns were raised about conflicts of interest arising over personal protective equipment contracts, because of close relationships between ministers, civil servants and suppliers.

In a report analysing the impact of the new rules, the NAO said some 71% of public bodies had changed their processes for managing conflicts of interest.

But while 91% of them require senior managers to submit an annual declaration of their interests, 41% require the same from all staff.

The watchdog also warned that some public bodies lack a central register for the interests of their officials.

The NAO recommended mandatory declaration of interests for all public officials, and says the Cabinet Office, the Government department which manages the machinery of the state, should set minimum standards for the measures.

It also recommends departments carry out internal reviews to ensure they are meeting these standards.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Despite improvements in its systems for managing conflicts of interest, Government has more to do to ensure full coverage of the civil service and other public officials and consistent implementation of the required controls.”

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, urged ministers to ensure further transparency.

The veteran Tory MP said: “All public bodies should have effective systems in place to manage conflicts of interest. Today’s NAO report shows that this is clearly not the case.

“Most people would take for granted that public bodies have central registers of interests in the same way as other professions.

“Government must take addressing these shortfalls seriously or else it risks undermining the objectivity of its operations.”