> It's done by one specific career bureaucrat or group

Almost all governments have a legally defined public procurement framework. If this is overridden, it's pretty much always by elected politicians, not by regular government employees.

  > Almost all governments have a legally defined public procurement framework.

  > If this is overridden, it's pretty much always by elected politicians, not by regular government employees.

Also it's not like 4 years ago either UK or EU governments would expect they will soon want to get rid of all US companies in their public sector.