[Closed] Government corruption in awarding Covid PPE contracts

It truly stinks doesn't it?

Corruption plain and simple apart from the added nastiness that's it's profiteering from a time of national crisis.

I just worry that many, many purple just don't care anymore and this will all get swept under the cluster fudge that is the Covid/ Brexit mashup from hell.

I think this Government with its huge parliamentary majority believe they can do what they want without consequence including giving large contracts to their business friends and donors whether or not they have the financial capacity or experience and knowledge to deliver them. Corruption and cronyism will define Boris's premiership.

It used to be that politicians had no issue with over stepping for personal gain but fully understood that if caught, they had to resign.

This mob have realised that it was only the last shred of integrity that made their predecessors resign and as they have none, there's no need to go anywhere and they can continue to dry bum the system for as long as they want.

I remember when I was young, being taught what a great political system we had and how corrupt lots of 3rd world countries were. How things have changed.

This lot seem to have gone to the extremes with it and answer to no one. Pretty sure greed will get the better of them and they'll end up kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Just a shame they'll take the whole country down and everyone in it just for a few quid.

The procurement process sucks, but does anyone have any knowledge over whether these companies are actually fulfilling their side of the bargain? If the PPE is being supplied (to time, cost and quality) then the argument starts to falter and these are plucky British companies that stood up to be counted when we needed them. The fact the contracts were slipped under the door on a nod and a wink will be overlooked as necessity in a time of need.

But if it's another ferries situation too.....

The money thrown at Serco for that 'car crash' of a track and trace system will make the ferries and PPE look like small potatoes.

The procurement process sucks, but does anyone have any knowledge over whether these companies are actually fulfilling their side of the bargain? If the PPE is being supplied (to time, cost and quality) then the argument starts to falter and these are plucky British companies that stood up to be counted when we needed them. The fact the contracts were slipped under the door on a nod and a wink will be overlooked as necessity in a time of need.

But if it’s another ferries situation too…..

I guess if we cast our minds back to when we were in the 'Fail to Prepare' phase of Downing Street's Covid Strategy when school kids, 3D printer nerds and crocheters where stepping up to make PPE to try and stem the shortages front line staff were facing then it makes perfect sense that businesses could and would pivot from the services they were unable to provide because of Covid to a service that was in demand. Certainly a lot of the signage companies I work with used their time and the materials they had on the shelf to make visors, screens and so on - often to gift to local care providers. And of course you've got the examples of the Dyson and the other consortiums turning their capacity to ventilators, Barbour making scrubs and so

What smells bad about these contracts being listed isn't that they are 'not companies that make PPE' but that they barely seem to be companies at all - entities with barely any trading history, assets or production capacity. They don't seem to have been placed to do anything other than add their mark-up to an invoice.

Given that the spotlight has fallen on them and they were there for us in our hour of need like the plucky little boats at Dunkirk - if they had successfully delivered on those contracts on time, moving heaven and earth to bring our front line services the supplies they need under extraordinary circumstances and for astounding value for money this would be the perfect opportunity for them to boast about it wouldn't it?

Dominic Cummings and co are just following the Trump playbook, being in power is purely about feathering your own nest, nothing more, nothing less.

It is staggering how far standards have fallen in public life in the last few years, nothing is too shameful anymore, no one resigns, no one seems to have any sense of decency either.

I think I said this in the other thread, but, the real headline here isn't about the corruption- taking public money and giving it to your mates should be a big deal, but it's become the norm. But regardless, in this situation it's the smaller part of the story, because the real issue is what they didn't do- by giving these contracts to their mates, they didn't give it to companies who would actually deliver the lifesaving equipment that was needed.

So it's not just larceny; it's larceny that also kills people.

Can't access the Monbiot article, but can anyone clarify if the details include the terms of the contracts? Are the contracts "x" value in theory, but only payable on delivery of e.g. PPE?

Still not good if non-competitive and ignored better placed firms to favour personal contacts, but from comments above there's a feeling of fixed fee payments in return for nothing, which would seem very odd indeed.

Have they delivered on the contracts is the key question. Any idea how we could find out - FOI requests to be sent to.....?

So it’s not just larceny; it’s larceny that also kills people.

This.

Here's another odd one - multi million contract value to company with no trading history.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/07/02/lifestyle-company-with-no-employees-or-trading-history-handed-25-million-ppe-contract/

This government is an absolute disgrace, I imagine a reasonable percentage of people banged up have done lesser crimes than this lot. It is a shame that we will probably never know the true depth of the corruption and fraud going on behind closed doors.

For future reference, we can rename threads. Just report / email.

I've closed the old one.

Have they delivered on the contracts is the key question. Any idea how we could find out – FOI requests to be sent to…..?

Almost certainly not and at some point the National Audit office will write a scathing report which gets completely ignored by the Government as they simply don't care what anyone else thinks.

This

I think this Government with its huge parliamentary majority believe they can do what they want without consequence

And this

at some point the National Audit office will write a scathing report which gets completely ignored by the Government as they simply don’t care what anyone else thinks.

And the government will bang on about statues & wokeism & get voted in again at the next GE

The Good Law Project are doing work on this, you can support it here:
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/ppe-procurement?source=twitter&

From one conract, 6 million gowns are still outstanding:
https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1285622489331228673

Matt Hancock telling a commitee what a great job we did on procurement:
https://twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/1285655241627774981?s=19

Appartently even a bad decision, is a good decision that shouldn't be questioned, even when it involces £13bn of public funds....

greentricky
Member
The Good Law Project are doing work on this, you can support it here:> https://actionnetwork.org/forms/ppe-procurement?source=twitter& <

Petition signed

OddLy just reading about Aventis.

Aventis Solutions Ltd was awarded the £18.48 million contract on 12 May to supply garments for biological or chemical protection to the NHS. According to Companies House, the business was incorporated in June 2011. Its latest fillings up until 30 June last year put its net assets at £322

Does look like they were throwing contracts wildly around in a panic.

It wasn't a panic - its all about paying off the folk who pay them

TBH when the Govs on the phone to get Deloitte to run Covid testing I think we knew there was some serious ****ery going down.

Bah my exquisitely Picked Jamaican patois Blocked by mr 4star

1. Pertains to a person, situation (or place) that considered ridiculous or nonsensical
2. An alternative to the word "Bullshit"
3. Injustice

Of course there is corruption. Our whole system of government is designed to encourage it. We always have minority governments who can do as they please. Party funding is designed to encourage corruption

Track and trace is one clear example - we have the expertise in local public health bodies. Not only was this ignored but the contracts were written in such a way that the data was not passed on to public health bodies in a timely fashion nor in a way it could be used

Of course the assumption here is that the Government here is an "intelligent customer" whereas my experience is far from the same. Likely that some extreme pressures will have been made by Ministers and senior officials to get some PPE contracts in place, normal scrutiny rules have been waived and so some hapless Civil Servant gets tasked with buying "stuff" and here we have the consequences. The fact that there are unscrupulous individuals with the help of their mates prepared to exploit the system is par for the course.

No doubt the toothless NAO will give the Government a firm "gumming" in due course.

Have we done Public First…? Not PPE but it is indicative as regards how this government hands out our money now…

https://goodlawproject.org/case/money-for-dominic-cummings-mates/

The official response is basically… go away…

https://goodlawproject.org/news/above-the-law/

If the “Tax Payers Alliance” were actually what they claim to be, they should be all over this kind of thing.

We are now "governed" by a crime syndicate who pay no heed to laws or common decency. They are using the working persons taxes to fill their own pockets and I for one am truly sickened by it.

kelvin - Public First were referenced in a linked article up there ^^^ but the Treasury Solicitor's response to the Good Law Project (GLP) is striking in both content and tone; thanks for posting it.

Both the GLP and Byline Times are going hard with this; Guardian are chipping in here & there but, other than that, there's no attempt at in-depth coverage.

Here's another article from the Byline Times in which they attempt to tot up how much has been wasted, not just on CV19 activities, by johnson & co since he became PM - figures in red are cumulative.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/07/24/boris-johnsons-great-spaffometer/

In an emergency you would always look to someone who knows what they're doing so using proven suppliers would have been the default choice - known quantity, relevant expertise, logistics and payment terms in place.
That didn't happen; there were conscious - and probably, guided - decisions on contract awards.
I'm amazed there haven't been any challenges under the procurement regs from other 'economic operators' unless they're scared off by the possibility of being excluded from future tenders or having existing contracts terminated; illegal under the regs but where there's a will...

I've sourced from China and it's likely that contracts would require 25 - 30% upfront with the balance to be paid at time of shipping; this provides little or no redress in event of short delivery or faulty goods.
I would be surprised if escrow a/cs were used or if the companies involved in this used procurement agents on the ground in China.

I have just made a donation to the Good Law Project.

They seem to be one of the few organisations prepared to try and challenge what Johnson & Co are doing.

Most of the media won’t report it as they support and benefit from it. Just look at its ownership and its links. It’s just one big scam

I’m amazed there haven’t been any challenges under the procurement regs from other ‘economic operators’ unless they’re scared off by the possibility of being excluded from future tenders or having existing contracts terminated; illegal under the regs but where there’s a will…

The CV-19 2020 act basically gave them carte blanche to do what they wanted in an emergency.

Bloody hell - another one:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53672841

It also emerged that the person who originally approached the government about the deal was a government trade adviser who also advises the board of Ayanda.

But he told the BBC his position played no part in the awarding of the contract.

Oh - that is OK then, he had nothing to do with it...

Does their corruption know no bounds?

Bloody hell – another one:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53672841

It also emerged that the person who originally approached the government about the deal was a government trade adviser who also advises the board of Ayanda.

But he told the BBC his position played no part in the awarding of the contract.

Oh – that is OK then, he had nothing to do with it…

Does their corruption know no bounds?

Yup, I spotted that too (great minds think alike):

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/wheres-the-coronavirus-were-all-going-to-die-conspiracy-thread/page/378/#post-11325614

Small potatoes compared to when the new planning laws gets pushed through.

That’s when we will see colossal grifting.

That’s when we will see colossal grifting.

I thought the same, the fact that Jenrick has been caught red handed accepting bribes should be a worry to everyone, butets face it

80 seat majority, 'got brexit done' etc, there's nothing anyone can do about it

Fixed this for you

This government Parliament, Conservative cronyism and corruption, infighting within Labour and the influence of the unions on it, and the fact we can only really choose between Conservative or Labour is an absolute disgrace

The seeds of where we are now were sown long ago.

Remember when we used to smugly look at 'banana republic' countries with their dodgy democratic processes, blatant corruption, parliamentary seats for sale, money laundering for organised crime etc and lecture them about our superior British principles and values?

The Good Law Project have a Twitter thread on it as well, unroll here
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1291244082145177600.html

Andrew Mills - the 'advisor' referred to above has been making strenuous efforts to cover his tracks.
Since The Good Law Project got onto him he's changed his twitter handle, amended his linkedin profile and the Board of Trade have stopped listing it's members - of which he's one.
His £100 company – 'secured exclusive rights to the full production capacity of a large factory in China'. Really?
Pursuing these cases costs money so...

If you would like to support these cases you can do so here https://crowdjustice.com/case/108million/ and if you would like to support @GoodLawProject
you can do so here https://goodlawproject.org/membership/

I donated last weekend

Isn’t it the case that The Department of Health and NHS supply chain both procured the PPE?

Ministers don’t sign generally off individual procurements - civil servants have the delegated decision rights to do this.

So are we all saying that individual Civil Servants and executives in the NHS / agencies were all on the take? Where is that actual evidence?

I believe contracts were let by a 'cell' within the cabinet office; cummings domain - what a surprise

There were some more PPE contracts published yesterday with similar strange goings on. PPE Medro was incorporated in May and then awarded a £122M PPE contract for gowns. They are based in a modest residential house in Cambridge. Rob Knott (@procure4health on Twitter) is a good source for factual detail about this. All of these contracts avoided the normal procurement checks and balances.

The Good Law Project is continuing to seek a judicial review of Ayanda Capital's contract for £160M of unusable face masks, that's likely to have made the company £50M profit. This company is connected to Liz Truss Secretary of State for International Trade.
Rushanara Ali MP is also asking some probing questions.

This all stinks of corruption. More people need to be shouting about it.

This really sheds light on how biased our media is.

Lets be fair this is a massive scandal but also a juicy as **** story!

Why isn't this getting the same coverage as the expenses scandal?

So are we all saying that individual Civil Servants and executives in the NHS / agencies were all on the take?

No, we’re saying that they didn’t make the decisions. You’re are right to identify who would normally be involved in the decision making, but the normal process was circumvented (with arguably good reason) by people who are absolutely untrustworthy and inclined to follow their own gut feeling and use their own connections. Experts… bah! Anyone who knows a reasonably senior civil servant knows they are in a “do as you are told or your career is over” position.

Another £122M PPE uncontested contract awarded to PPE Medpro a newly established company with no prior experience and close links to the Tories.
Keep questioning people. We're being exploited.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18780543.government-awarded-urgent-ppe-contract-firm-run-ex-associate-tory-peer-michelle-mone/

House of Commons debate Wednesday:

https://twitter.com/rachelreevesmp/status/1314528192623935493?s=21

Legal options still being pursued:
https://twitter.com/goodlawproject/status/1315200772313886720?s=21

Email received from The Good Law Project this morning below. Like I said up there, if you feel strongly about this and can donate then please do so.

The Government is keeping billions of pounds worth of COVID-19 contracts hidden from view. We know that the Department of Health and Social Care has awarded more than £11billion worth of contracts to private companies. Yet they have failed to publish the details of contracts worth more than £3billion. What has that money been spent on? Who has it been spent with?

The law requires the Government to publish details of contracts within 30 days of the award. The Government’s persistent failure to abide by this law makes it impossible for these contracts to be properly scrutinized.

The contracts that we do know about are serious cause for concern. Take PestFix. The company, which had no previous experience providing PPE to the NHS, has been awarded eleven contracts. But so far the Government has only published the details of one. The fact that the pest control specialists had to recall face masks they had supplied to other commercial clients suggests the Government may have good reason for wanting to keep the public in the dark on these particular contracts.

But we cannot allow the Government to evade scrutiny. That’s why, along with a cross-party group of MPs of Debbie Abrahams, Caroline Lucas and Laya Moran, we are suing the Government for their persistent failure to publish the details of contracts.

The law can be a powerful tool for accountability. We intend to use it to keep those in power honest.

Thank you,

Jolyon Maugham QC
Director of Good Law Project

From the BMJ

"When good science is suppressed by the medical-political complex, people die"

https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4425

The Government is keeping billions of pounds worth of COVID-19 contracts hidden from view. We know that the Department of Health and Social Care has awarded more than £11billion worth of contracts to private companies. Yet they have failed to publish the details of contracts worth more than £3billion. What has that money been spent on? Who has it been spent with?

I suppose the other side of this will be the company's themselves, anyone reporting a bumper Q2/Q3 2020 even vaguely connected to the medical supply or logistics world might well be a recipient of a dodgy contract from Gove or Handjob...

Anything new made it into the public sphere this week? Dom's departure may well be just another dead cat to distract from some obvious bungs to chums...

Not exactly corruption but still eye opening...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54974373

£21 million? A bargain.

£21million was the commission paid to an intermediary for a £200m contract. Under normal government procurement rules with an open book on some of the contracts I worked on, they'd positively wet themselves if you tried to charge that amount in profit - that's the commission, never mind the gross margin on the product itself. I think a lot of these contacts were handled by the Cabinet Office, not DH&SC.

I was being sarcastic.

£21 million? A bargain.

To get the best you have to pay for the best.

dovebiker, your post underscores the need for transparency.
Starmer touched on iffy contract awards during last week's PMQs; how long before he returns to it?
I believe the gov are committed to fully integrating the OJEU procurement regs into UK law when transition ends so the requirement to disclose and publish contract award details will remain unchanged.
It's generally accepted that public sector procurement performance lags some way behind private sector but surely someone asked for a full cost breakdown - ex works price for each product type, shipping, taxes/duties, margin, other fees/charges.
It would appear not.
Amateur hour - again.

National Audit Office report:

https://www.nao.org.uk/report/government-procurement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Moving 1,000 containers of PPE in a week from Felixstowe to an old airfield and fields; making space for new deliveries?
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/ppe-moved-to-suffolk-airfields-1-6931841

First sentence in recent Guardian article...

'Retailers are warning a logjam at the country’s biggest container port could result in product shortages this Christmas, as it emerged 11,000 containers of government-procured PPE is clogging up Felixstowe

Full article https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/14/shops-warn-of-christmas-stock-shortages-as-ppe-shipments-clog-key-uk-port

Based on recent (high) PPE usage, the current stockpile is >5years worth of cover; this stuff has max shelf life of 5 years from date of manufacture so...write-offs coming - at NHS cost.

'We can't support people financially who have just started their own business, HMRC make the rules not us' Alok Sharma on GMB this morning discussing furlough scheme

3 week old companies being given £21m handling fee

this stuff has max shelf life of 5 years from date of manufacture so…write-offs coming – at NHS cost.

Just been told that the inbound stockpile is so large, and time-restricted, that it's being offered to the care sector gratis. Which is having an immediate impact on every existing ppe supplier in the country... Being put out of business by your own government is a pretty special way to go.

Rich_s, if you're right then the recent focus on developing domestic PPE suppliers will have been largely a waste of time and effort.

This story was depressingly low down the BBC news priority earlier this evening

Do you think enough ppe would have made it through without emergency procurement measures?

If not, how much is an acceptable risk?

There are plenty of companies who had no previous ppe or ventilator experience who managed to deliver, so no experience isn't a definitive test. There are also new companies that successfully delivered, so that's not a definitive test either.

https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/every-uk-manufacturers-helping-to-produce-ppe-and-equipment-for-nhs-workers/

It's obviously not good that money has been spent badly, but if the government followed the restrictions posters here think we should have, we wouldn't have got enough ppe, so pick your preferred outcome...

There's emergency procurement measures and then there's blatantly handing out money to your connections.

Oh well, here's another scandal that's been dead catted this morning on the TV networks with news of some money for the MOD.

The bit that's annoyed me the most is listening to people with no idea whatsoever of logistics, talk about logistics.

Right from the beginning the key failure was the Govt failure to plan for a pandemic (because they ignored the findings of their own contingency exercise).

A 'simple' answer to the stock piling of limited-age goods is to use a consignment stock approach. Basically pay manufacturers/wholesalers etc to carry stock over & above their own needs, but for them to use it in their business. This way the stockpile stays in date AND there's no waste as it's been used & replenished constantly.

It's a method used since time began quite frankly and it is a damn sight cheaper than probably every other approach - plus the costs stay in the UK, along with the expenditure.

And yes, I use to work in healthcare logistics 🙂

There’s emergency procurement measures and then there’s blatantly handing out money to your connections.

I'm tempted to agree with reformedfatty, that at times like these the rules need to be reconsidered (within reason!) to deal with a situation. At the risk of being spitfires over Dover, I'm not aware of there being a huge risk assessment exercise before the small ships of Dunkirk set off.......

And then I remember - Chris Grayling's ferry company. The money being sent (and barely concealed) to Cummings' mates for analytics and advice. Dido Harding, the MP's wife in her next failed venture. And if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....

[and even then I'm prepared to be charitable. Yes - we have received more PPE as a result of this 'emergency procurement exercise' but at what cost in money and trust. I'm sure it'll come out in the lessons learned review that will surely follow, given there's nothing to hide]

And then I remember – Chris Grayling’s ferry company. The money being sent (and barely concealed) to Cummings’ mates for analytics and advice. Dido Harding, the MP’s wife in her next failed venture. And if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…..

Yes - I'm prepared to cut some slack for the emergency angle, but it wasn't just Delboy type chancers lining their pockets, this is contacts of MPs and ministers.

the key failure was the Govt failure to plan for a pandemic (because they ignored the findings of their own contingency exercise).

Absolutely this. They chose to run down our pandemic preparations, despite their own risk tests showing the danger, over a 10 year period. The fundamental duty of a government is to protect the population, and this is the overarching thing that successive Tory government's failed to do, leaving us with a bunch of incompetent idiots starting on the backfoot.

https://twitter.com/politicshome/status/1329184893952253956?s=21

^ in itself I don't have a problem with that if they can deliver to time, cost and quality. And if the owner makes a bit out of it, that's the way the world works.

But when the owner is a minister's mate, and the kit sits in a warehouse because it isn't what was ordered and isn't safe to use, then questions get asked. Or not, apparently

*not saying this firm above is one of them, there are some honest traders as well. Otherwise, how would they hide the grifters.....

I see a few posts now on this thread saying that it was an emergency and we just had to get on and do it. I can see this argument too but it’s only when you look into things further that you start to see the massive incompetence (at best) or corruption (at worst).

- Avoiding existing UK PPE manufacturers and suppliers
- Significant contracts awarded to newly created companies without any PPE experience and links to the Conservative party
- Shady ‘Fast track’ procurement process for VIPs (friends of MPs)
- Government Procurement specialists side-lined in favour of Cabinet Office cronies
- Lack of transparency of awarded contracts
- Vastly overpaying, even above what the heightened market was paying at the time
- PPE purchased that is unusable
- Huge stock piles of excess inventory

I'm not one to knock the government at any opportunity, but this stinks.

Apologies for the paywall link:

https://twitter.com/gabriel_pogrund/status/1330436781343436805?s=21

My Company makes modern body armour for military and police units all over the world. Probably 250k Vests fielded. We turned some production over to masks and gowns. Up to 10 million quantity. I registered with the NHS and never heard a thing. Putting 1p on N95 masks and gowns for profit. Do the math on 10 million masks at 31p. 3 mil deal only. I guess the cheapest bidder loses.

Are you, or are you related to, a Conservative politician or back room adviser?

Nah too busy overseas laying the smack on evil.

https://twitter.com/liamthorpecho/status/1330277047835496450?s=21

kelvin, your example ^^^stinks and appears to be typical of the gov's attitude; inept, inadequate, incompetent and corrupt.

There was a recent post suggesting that consignment stock was the answer; constock only works if the min & max stocks are defined and the supply chain is reliable.
Neither were applicable in an 'emergency procurement' situation.
In an emergency or urgent supply situation any procurement or logistics professional would immediately turn to their existing, proven and trusted suppliers.
That didn't happen.
I've banged on about how this in multiple previous posts.

inept, inadequate, incompetent and corrupt.

Needs some work but very nearly our next 3 part slogan 👍