Oxford Insights
The challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed major weaknesses in the UK’s public procurement system, leading to billions being lost through fraud, inefficiency, and poorly executed contracts. In response, the Labour government announced the appointment of a COVID corruption tsar and launched investigations into £600m worth of COVID contracts. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning hold significant potential to both identify and recover these losses. Seven EU countries are already employing AI to analyse procurement data or assist with tender processes, with 10 more planning to adopt similar tools. However, more needs to be done to create practical, actionable use cases in this space.
Our approach
At Oxford Insights, we partnered with Butterfly Data to develop the Company Analysis Tool (CAT). By combining UK contracting data from Companies House and Contracts Finder with proven ‘red flag’ methodologies, the CAT summarises any potential risks associated with contracting a given company. Enhanced with large-language-model (LLM) technology, it also synthesises contextual insights from news articles and Wikipedia. The CAT has been designed as an ethical tool which is transparent about how data is sourced and respects copyright law.
This white paper explains how the CAT works and outlines its potential to help governments identify companies for manual investigation.
By working closely with government and civil society stakeholders, we want the CAT to become a practical solution to address real-world challenges in public
procurement.
Impact
The CAT has the potential to help the UK government uncover and fraud and corruption in multiple ways. The white paper explores these examples in more detail:
- The CAT could support the work of the Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner in addressing the £8.7 billion lost to poor contracting practices during the pandemic, as it helps to identify instances where due diligence may have been overlooked. The CAT provides a valuable first step by flagging contracts for further review, saving time and resources.
- The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could use a tailored version of the CAT to identify fraudulent companies that have benefited from welfare payments.
- The Public Sector Fraud Agency could use the tool in combination with their profiling and networks tool for the purposes of identifying new patterns in corporate fraud as it emerges.
- The CAT has the potential to be applied at His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to help recuperate fraudulent grants bestowed on organisations as part of the various Covid support schemes that were implemented.
