Transparency International UK has identified at least 24 contracts for PPE equipment which were awarded to people with known political connections to the government.
In a new report entitled Track and trace: identifying corruption risks in UK public procurement for the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisation says there is a need for greater scrutiny of uncompetitive procurement practices, particularly after the initial response in March to June 2020.
The document states that between February and November, 998 contracts were awarded. Of these, at least 73 contracts worth almost £4 billion warrant further investigation, it says.
Of the 73, 65 were for PPE equipment, amounting to £3 billion. At least 24 PPE contracts were awarded to those with links to government.
Transparency International UK the system for triaging offers of PPE by suppliers was “questionable” and seemed to benefit those with political connections.
In particular, it says, important questions remain about the ‘high priority’ or ‘VIP’ lane for referring PPE suppliers: who knew about the process, when, why did they know and not others, and who passed through this “privileged procurement route”.
The report states that the arrangements for enabling scrutiny over the use of taxpayers’ money has been “woefully inadequate” and identified systemic deficiencies in how the State accounts for the use of public funds.
“Both central and local government publish procurement data in a way that makes it impossible to map the award of contracts through to actual spend and contract delivery with accuracy, raising uncertainty over who they are engaging to provide key goods and services,” it says.
“These systemic and performance issues frustrate the public’s right to know how their money is being used, prevents the detection of possible wrongdoing, and has the potential to raise suspicions that there is something to hide,” the organisation says.
This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
