Coronavirus diary, Wednesday 16 December

For months the government has been criticised for wasting millions of pounds on faulty PPE equipment and the way they handed out contracts to some companies with no experience. Now they are facing a legal challenge over one contract.

A not for profit organisation, Good Law Project, together with three MPs, is taking them on over a £120 million order for 10.2 million gowns, granted to a USA jewellery company with no experience of supplying PPE or ever having had dealings with a government department. The cost was said to be £7.50 per gown when the average price was £4.60. A middleman consultant was paid £40 million, it is claimed.

The government is accused by the director of the project, Jolyon Maugham QC, of failing to disclose details of the deal and of persistent and unlawful failure to disclose details of huge sums of money spent on PPE contracts. Staggering sums were flowing from public coffers to private pockets, he added.

The government had earlier been criticised for granting huge contracts to companies with no experience and millions of pounds to consultants and middleman. Most of the products came from China.

Yesterday the cabinet office said it was overhauling the procurement system. This follows information that £123,500 was paid to a company owned by a political activist involved in Boris Johnson’s election win, ‘for research into government communication for COVID-19 updates’.

Details were also given of a former  Conservative director of information, Paul Stephenson, said to have been paid £819,000 this year for focus groups and polling.

The cabinet office said there would be consultation about how contracts should be done faster in future. More details needed to be published about any links between MPs, senior officials and contract winners to avoid allegations of corruption. 

The scale of the operation to obtain PPE and cost has been enormous.

The National Audit Office last month reported that the government had spent £12.5 billion, including hundreds of millions on unsuitable items that could not be used.

Hundreds of containers, it is claimed, were left clogging the Port of Felixstowe where the government stores equipment for distribution and where 40,000 are left. 

In June they announced the ‘milestone’ of the delivery of two billion PPE items.

Big business indeed.