A ruling by the European Court of Justice has highlighted the need for public procurement to be transparent throughout the process.

The issue arose after property management company, Lettings International, obtained an injunction against the London Borough of Newham after discovering the council had breached Public Contract Regulations after it was dropped from a formal tendering process.

The contract was supposed to be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender; however this was proven not to be the case.

Simon Evans, a partner from Cardiff law firm Dolmans, said the court ruled that the council had acted without the requisite degree of transparency.

Council had not set out in advance the detailed criteria and sub-criteria against which they had actually marked the tenders, he said.

"In so doing they came to the view that all criteria had to be set out in advance to allow bidders to fully understand how they could meet them."

The council unsuccessfully argued that Lettings International should have anticipated some of the award criteria and that the sub-criteria was not required to be disclosed.