The Government’s process for procuring PPE, consultants and PR services during the pandemic has been branded ‘chaotic’ as a new report revealed £18 billion in deals had been awarded – many of which lacked documents to back up decisions
Ministers doled out billions of pounds worth of contracts in the fight against coronavirus without keeping proper records in a regime blasted for lacking transparency, a watchdog said today.
Government procurement has come under the microscope after ministries awarded deals to Tory cronies and friends of Dominic Cummings in the rapid battle to curb the spread of Covid-19.
According to a National Audit Office report published today, by July 31m more than 8,600 contracts, worth £18billion, related to government’s response to the pandemic had been awarded.
Individual contracts ranged in value from less than £100 to £410million.
Among them, as the Mirror revealed earlier this year, was £550,000 was handed to Public First, a firm owned by allies of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings.
Another bungled deal saw a family-owned pest control and public health supplies firm awarded a PPE contract worth millions after being ‘fast-tracked’ through the procurement process by mistake.
And a data firm previously used by Vote Leave was handed three contracts worth a total of £3 million with no documentation on conflicts of interest. It was later revealed that a Tory minister owned £90,000 of shares in the firm.
The NAO revealed there was a “high-priority lane” to deal with requests or leads from government officials, ministers, MPs and members of the House of Lords. It also included leads from senior NHS staff.
