THE UK Government’s multi-billion pound procurement of PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic should be investigated by the spending watchdog, Labour have said.
The party has written to the National Audit Office calling on them to look into the number of contracts awarded without competition under emergency powers earlier this year, HuffPost UK reports.
The Chancellor revealed last week that £15 billion was allocated by the Treasury to spend on personal protective equipment during the pandemic.
The consulting firm Deloitte was picked by the Cabinet Office to advise on how to source the kit, including masks, gowns and gloves, for health workers.
As demand for these items soared around the word, UK ministers used a system bypassing usual rules on the need for rival bidders to secure the products.
The single bidder emergency procurement process was used more than 60 times between April and May, and not all of the contracts included have been made public.
It’s unclear exactly how much has been spent on the contracts, but officials wrote to Good Law Project director Jo Maugham suggesting the figure could be around £5.5 billion.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow Cabinet Office minister and Justin Madders, shadow health minister, called on NAO chief Gareth Davies, highlighting how many emergency tenders were used when compared to other European states.
The shadow cabinet members wrote that contracts for the PPE were given to firms with little – and sometimes no – prior experience in the sector.
Reeves said: “Transparency in the awarding of public contracts is crucial to good government. The public don’t expect emergency laws to be used inappropriately and have raised questions about a number of contracts which deserve scrutiny.
“Ministers should welcome the independent oversight a National Audit Office investigation can provide.”
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said today that he would “absolutely” back the NAO looking into his government’s process.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “Coronavirus has placed unprecedented global demands on PPE supply chains. Almost 28 billion items of PPE have been ordered overall from UK-based manufacturers and international partners to provide a continuous supply in the coming months.
“We’ve been working tirelessly to deliver PPE to protect people on the frontline throughout this global pandemic, and have delivered over 2 billion items of PPE since the pandemic began.
“We have a robust process which ensures that orders are of high-quality standard, meet commercial due diligence and checked for risk and fraud.”
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