Tories vow to publish all government contracts over £25k if they win to general election

The Conservatives this week said they will publish all government contracts worth more than £25,000 for goods and services in full if the party wins the general election.

The move would reveal details such as performance indicators, break clauses and penalty measures.

In its Transparency Plan, the party said: “At the moment both the government and the private sector providers delivering these projects are able to hide behind confidentiality clauses, meaning that badly-designed contracts which are ripping off the taxpayer cannot be exposed.”

Calling for “an army of armchair auditors” to scrutinise the public accounts, the Conservatives said government departments, quangos and the BBC would be required to publish details of the senior staff they employ and in which positions.

“Anyone paid more than £150,000 in the public sector will have to have their salary signed off by the Treasury and then published,” it added.

Other key features of the Transparency Plan include:

• Abolishing any quangos that do not perform a technical function or a function that requires political impartiality, or act independently to establish facts
• Strengthening the role of the Chief Information Officer to “get a grip” on government ICT projects
• Calling a moratorium on the creation of new ICT projects
• Opening up government data and publish datasets in full and online
• Giving the public a right to request the publication of additional datasets.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne described the commitment to publish government contracts as “the most radical transparency announcement ever made by a political party” and that this would “enable the public to hold ministers and civil servants to account like never before”.

He added: “This policy will help us to cut government spending, root out waste and empower the public – and bring in a new age of transparency and accountability.”