The Office of Fair Trading investigation started in 2004 and its statement of objection was published on 17 April 2008. Your leader column (25 April, page 3) guesses how much the the public purse might have been diddled out of.

But the Treasury decided what procurement strategies were to be used by central government clients on 22 May 2000. It forbade the use of traditional, non-integrated strategies. From 1 June 2000, the procurement strategies for all new works would be limited to a choice between PFI, design and build and prime contracting. All three limit financial competition.

It will be interesting when the time comes to discover the extent to which anti-competitive practices were found in each of the Treasury鈥檚 three mandatory strategies.

James Nisbet, Cobham, Surrey

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