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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Plain-language definitions of every Ethics, Compliance & Integrity term that shows up in government tender work.


Ethics, Compliance & IntegrityAML

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) in Procurement

Anti-money laundering in procurement refers to the controls and obligations designed to prevent public contracts from being used to integrate illicit funds into legitimate economic activity, including supplier due diligence, beneficial ownership disclosure, and exclusion of operators convicted of money laundering offences.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Bid Rigging

Bid rigging is a form of cartel conduct in which competing suppliers secretly coordinate their tender submissions to predetermine the winner, eliminating genuine competition, inflating contract prices, and depriving contracting authorities and taxpayers of fair value.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Blacklisting (Procurement)

Blacklisting in procurement refers to the informal or formal exclusion of suppliers from opportunities, either through official debarment registers or through unlawful covert practices, and the term also specifically denotes illegal information sharing about workers' union activities used to deny employment in construction procurement.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Cartel Activity in Procurement

Cartel activity in procurement refers to secret anticompetitive agreements between suppliers, including bid rigging, market sharing, and price fixing, that eliminate genuine competition for public contracts and inflate costs to contracting authorities and taxpayers.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Code of Conduct (Procurement)

A code of conduct in procurement is a formal statement of ethical standards and behavioural expectations that governs how contracting authorities and suppliers approach public tendering, covering integrity, conflicts of interest, anti-bribery, confidentiality, and fair competition.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Collusive Tendering

Collusive tendering describes any secret coordination between competing suppliers before or during a tender process to undermine genuine competition, typically by agreeing on prices, bid allocations, or submission strategies to guarantee a predetermined outcome.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Conflict of Interest (Procurement)

A conflict of interest in procurement arises when a person involved in a contracting process has a personal, financial, or professional interest that could improperly influence their judgment, creating a risk of unfair treatment of tenderers or misuse of public funds.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Corruption in Public Procurement

Corruption in public procurement encompasses bribery, kickbacks, fraudulent manipulation of tenders, and abuse of office by public officials or private parties, distorting competition, inflating costs, and diverting public funds away from genuine value for money.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Debarment

Debarment is the formal exclusion of an economic operator from participating in public procurement for a defined or indefinite period, applied following a conviction for serious offences or a finding of significant misconduct, and is among the most serious commercial consequences a supplier can face.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Ethical Sourcing

Ethical sourcing is the practice of procuring goods and services from suppliers who meet defined standards for labour rights, environmental responsibility, human rights, and anti-corruption conduct throughout their supply chains, increasingly required as a condition of public contract award across Europe.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

EU Whistleblower Directive (2019/1937)

EU Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law establishes minimum standards for whistleblower protection across the EU, requiring organisations with 50 or more employees to create internal reporting channels and prohibiting retaliation against protected reporters.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Exclusion List

An exclusion list is a register of economic operators that have been barred from participating in public procurement due to criminal convictions, serious misconduct, or other disqualifying factors, used by contracting authorities to verify supplier eligibility before awarding contracts.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Fraud Prevention in Procurement

Fraud prevention in procurement encompasses the policies, controls, and detection mechanisms that contracting authorities and suppliers use to identify and deter deceptive conduct, including document falsification, invoice inflation, misrepresentation of capacity, and collusion, that undermines the integrity of public spending.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Gifts and Hospitality Policy

A gifts and hospitality policy sets out the rules governing what staff may give or receive in a business context, establishing thresholds, approval requirements, and disclosure obligations to prevent gifts and hospitality from creating or appearing to create conflicts of interest or corrupt influence.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Human Rights Due Diligence (Procurement)

Human rights due diligence in procurement is the process by which contracting authorities and suppliers identify, assess, prevent, and account for actual and potential adverse human rights impacts in their operations and supply chains, increasingly mandated by EU and national legislation as a condition of market access.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Market Sharing

Market sharing is a cartel practice in which competing suppliers divide a market among themselves by geography, customer type, or contract category, agreeing not to compete in each other's designated areas and thereby eliminating price competition across the allocated segments.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Modern Slavery Statement (Procurement)

A modern slavery statement in procurement is a published disclosure by a supplier describing the steps it has taken to ensure that its operations and supply chains are free from forced labour, human trafficking, and related exploitation, increasingly required as a condition of public contract eligibility across Europe.

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Ethics, Compliance & Integrity

Whistleblowing (Procurement)

Whistleblowing in procurement refers to the act of reporting suspected wrongdoing, including corruption, fraud, bid rigging, or conflicts of interest, by employees, suppliers, or other parties, with legal protections available across Europe to shield reporters from retaliation.

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