The Chancellor's spend to save plan to secure the economy -£110 billion so far - has been welcomed as money well spent.
But there is consistent and growing concern over billions being wasted in tackling coronavirus.
A scathing report by the National Audit Office accuses the government of covertly awarding multi-million pounds worth of contracts for supplies and services to companies recommended by MPs, peers and ministers' offices.
The NAO report says that of more than 8,000 contracts awarded up to July, £10 billion had been given without following normal contract procedure.
PPE - Personal Protective Equipment - accounted for 80 percent of the total.
Twenty cases studied by the NAO revealed that deals had been done and orders placed for millions of items with firms who had no experience and done no previous work for the government.
Under a £155m contract, Amanda Capital supplied 50 million masks that proved unusable. The deal had been brokered by a businessman who was adviser to the board of trade.
Pestfix, a pest control company, had been paid £350 million to supply 600,000 face masks which were also unusable.
The NAO said the government had not been transparent about how the money was spent.
Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said ministers should 'come clean' and publish all information about the contracts.
Gareth Davies, head of the NOA, said if the public were to trust the government it was essential that decisions were properly documented and made transparent.
Cabinet Office minister Julia Lopez said the government needed to procure contracts with extreme urgency to secure vital supplies. 'We have robust procedures for spending public money' she insisted.
No comments:
Post a Comment