Started this under a different title which was a bit oblique.
Contracts awarded without competition – based on ’emergency procurement’ argument; fair enough.
Contracts awarded to companies with no experience and contacts with Tory party – stinks of corruption.
Ooh look, an opportunity to rip-off the taxpayer; I’ve got no experience of what’s required but that’s no problem.

Questionable Contracts – CV19 content

The Pestfix contract value has been *amended* by hancock’s minions to correct an *error*
All of this is a clear attempt to go under the radar; there are legal attempts to challenge these awards and procurement regs mean there are records.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/15/coronavirus-contracts-government-transparency-pandemic
Yes, I know George Monbiot loves the publicity but the facts are indisputable.

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.

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 **** 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…

Money for Dominic Cummings’ mates

The official response is basically… go away…

They think that they are 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.

Boris Johnson’s 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://singletrackworld.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/