The appropriate handling of supplier complaints is vital to ensuring the integrity of government procurement processes.

What you need to know

• Public authorities are responsible for responding to and resolving complaints in the first instance
• Each public authority is required to have a process it follows to assess a complaint. You will find this information on an agency’s website
• If a complaint cannot be resolved between a supplier and the public authority , it can be escalated
• Complaints about alleged corrupt behaviour, misconduct and maladministration are to be reported to the appropriate authority
• If a dispute arises out of a contract, these are managed by the specific terms and conditions of that contract

For information on your public authority's complaints management framework, contact your procurement area or search your public authority's website and/or intranet.