Proof of concept Every case, officer and figure in this build is invented. Nothing it produces is an act of the Value for Money Office.
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Section 9 of 10

Words used here

Plain meanings for the terms that appear on screen.

Case
One contract going through assessment, from arrival to decision. It has a number of its own, separate from the contract's.
Entity
The public body awarding the contract — a ministry, a metropolitan or district assembly, an agency, or a state-owned enterprise.
Project
The approved investment a contract belongs to, drawn from the register of public projects. Several contracts can belong to one project.
Benchmark
A reference price for a defined thing — a kilometre of a particular road specification, a plant of a particular capacity — used to judge whether a submitted price is reasonable.
Statutory clock
The working days the Office has to decide in. It starts at acceptance, not arrival, and pauses while the Office is waiting on the entity.
Request for information
A question put to the entity during assessment. The clock pauses until it is answered.
Recommendation
What the reviewer proposes and why. It is not the decision.
Peer review
A second reviewer's agreement or dissent on a recommendation. A dissent is kept whether or not it is followed.
Value ceiling
The maximum at which an approved contract may be awarded.
Evidence manifest
The sealed, fingerprinted list of the documents a decision was made on, fixed at the moment of decision.
External analysis
A study the Office relied on that it did not carry out itself. The file always records who asked for it and who paid for it — often the contractor, since the law puts the cost of assessment on them. That is normal, and it is stated rather than left for a reader to discover.
Beneficial owner
The person who really owns a share of a company, as opposed to whoever is named on the paperwork. Declared by the entity when it names an intended supplier.
Conflict of interest
A connection between an officer of the Office and the supplier on a case. It blocks that officer from deciding it until somebody records what was done — it does not block the case, because reassignment is the remedy.
Dormant project
A registered project with no movement for a long period. Dormancy ties up approved money that could be doing something, so it is surfaced rather than left to be noticed.
Single source
A contract awarded without competition. In scope at any value, because there is no rival bid to show the price is reasonable.
Statutory parameter
A configurable figure the rules depend on — a threshold, a target number of working days, a tolerance. Dated from when it takes effect, so old cases keep the figures they were judged under.
Avoided commitment
The gap between a submitted price and a certified ceiling where a recorded finding caused the reduction. It is money not committed — deliberately reported apart from cash actually recovered, and never added to it.