LONDON — The chairman of the organization responsible for enforcing regulations covering UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) contracts awarded to industry without competition has resigned with immediate effect just weeks before he was due to step down anyway.

The Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) said in a statement released to industry and others Monday that interim chairman Clive Tucker had decided "to leave the role and spend more personal and professional time on his other commitments."

Tucker's departure comes amid growing tensions with the MoD over exactly what the SSRO role is as an independent regulator of noncompetitive contracts, said an industry executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The SSRO sits inside the MoD and is answerable to the secretary of state for defense, a position which has been criticized by some here.

Single-source contracts are big business in Britain. Last year alone the MoD spent £8.8 billion (US $10.8 billion) on noncompetitive contracts — more than half of the entire annual equipment and support budget.

The MoD has already been criticized over it's dealings with the SSRO, including failing to refer all but a handful of singe-source deals to the organization to adjudicate on contract terms and conditions, which could potentially save taxpayers millions of pounds. 

The MoD did not respond by press time.

A spokesman for the SSRO said Tucker would not be making a statement.  

Jon Louth, the director of defense, industry and society at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, and an expert on British single-source regulations, said Tucker's resignation was possibly timed to highlight SSRO's stand on the independence issue.

"It was probably designed to make a statement around the commitment he had for thinking of the SSRO as an independent regulator. I do think the issue comes down to the different understanding of what is meant by a regulator.There is a professional services [industry] understanding of what a regulator is and there is a MoD  understanding. The two aren't the same thing," Louth said.

Tucker becomes the second SSRO chairman to resign suddenly this year after Jeremy Newman unexpectedly quit the role in February, halfway through his tenure in office.

Newman was responsible for setting up the SSRO in 2014 after the government’s Defence Reform Act mandated creation of an organization to police British single-source defense contracts as well as be responsible for annually setting base profit rates allowed to industry.

Tucker, Newman’s deputy, stepped up to take on the chairmanship of SSRO on an interim basis, scheduled to come to an end in December with the appointment of a permanent chairman.

SSRO Chief Executive Marcine Waterman said in the statement that the "MoD will shortly appoint a new permanent chair."

Tucker had been one of the contender’s for the appointment said industry sources.

Aside from the SSRO role, he is a director of a strategic business consultancy and a steering board member of the UK Space Agency.

The unexpected departure of Tucker comes as the organization is midway through a mandatory review of its regulations ahead of the defense secretary deciding whether to accept the proposals. That decision is likely to be made public in late 2017.

The MoD confirmed last week the SSRO is reviewing whether government-to-government deals like US Foreign Military Sales contracts should going forward be scrutinized.

At present, the deals are exempted from investigation by the SSRO after the MoD opted not to include the requirement in the original regulations.

The review will also reconsider earlier proposals that industry base profit rates should be based on the complexity of the task rather than a single rate being set for all contracts — whether it’s building a nuclear submarine or cutting the grass.

The MoD rejected the original proposals and asked SSRO to gather further evidence before reconsidering the scheme in the current review.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

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