> If there's any, even the slightest, chance that buying from a business might one day reflect badly on the civil servant in the procurement office, then they won't buy from that business.

This is an absurd statement that might as well come straight out of Yes Minister. Buying from PWC reflects badly on them already, let alone when their next scandal happens. Which is of course never far away [0].

I'm sure Fujitsu met similar "criteria" when selected for Horizon. How well that selection reflected on the procurement office..

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PwC#Litigation