Conflict of Interest breaches

We work to ensure that CCG staff, governing body members, committee or sub-committee members and GP Practice members are supported and feel confident to voice any concerns they may have regarding conflicts of interests and possible breaches that may have occurred. You can read our policy towards conflicts of interest breaches here.

This section of the website is updated quarterly to reflect on any breaches that have occurred.

Tower Hamlets CCG breaches

During 2017, a Request for Quotation exercise for a pilot service totalling £30,000 was undertaken by the CCG. The evaluation panel consisted of 5 individuals, one of whom worked part time at one of the bidding organisations. The conflicted panel member declared their conflict at the start of the procurement process, prior to any tenders being received, but the conflict was not reviewed as part of the ongoing procurement process as is standard practice.  On identifying the conflict a robust investigation took place which highlighted the following learning

 

  • the importance of embedding conflict of interest management at processes which have smaller contractual values
  • additional training for commissioners and clinical leads in managing conflicts during procurement or quotation exercises.
  • a review of external procurement support to identify and address gaps in provision

 

Since undertaking the evaluation a number of local initiatives have been initiated such as the introduction of Conflict of Interest documents as part of business case planning and additional training for NEL CSU Procurement Team, clinical leads and transformation managers.    As part of the evaluation process an assessment was undertaken to ascertain whether the breach affected the outcome of the procurement exercise.  The assessment found that the breach had not affected the decision to award the contract and there was no evidence of fraudulent activity on the behalf of the conflicted individual.