UK Anti-Corruption Coalition named as core participant in official Covid-19 Inquiry
The Government’s controversial approach to PPE procurement during the pandemic is now set to be scrutinised by anti-corruption experts during evidence to the official UK Covid-19 Inquiry. The Inquiry has accepted the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition as a core participant in Module 5, its next phase on procurement.
The Inquiry published the list of core participants today, and Module 5 will begin with a preliminary hearing on Tuesday 6 February 2024. The Coalition has specific interest in the following areas of pandemic procurement including:
Frontline impact
Lack of commercial acumen
The High Priority Lane (also known as the VIP Lane)
Systematic failures to disclose basic contract information on emergency PPE contracts
The use of digital procurement tools
Procurement of services like Test and Trace
Quality assurance
The UK-Anti Corruption Coalition brings together the leading anti-corruption organisations in Britain, including the Centre for Health and Public Interest, Open Contracting Partnership, Spotlight on Corruption, and Transparency International UK, as well as Chris Smith, an independent expert on procurement and reform. All of these expert voices will be providing evidence to the Inquiry.
“Devastating for public trust”
Senior Coalition Coordinator Peter Munro said: “We would like to thank the Chair for accepting us as Core Participants in this vital Inquiry. The mishandling of the emergency procurement response has not only been devastating for public trust in government, but it’s had a direct impact on our ability to tackle the pandemic, with staff given PPE that wasn’t even close to NHS standards. We have serious questions relating to missing contracts, conflicts of interest, and the ‘high-priority lane’ – all of which were especially unique to the UK’s handling of the pandemic.
“We look forward to working constructively with the Inquiry and providing our expertise, data, and research, so that the UK can start to regain the public trust and be better prepared for future emergencies.”
“Tireless work of journalists and public interest organisations”
During the early stages of the pandemic, members of the coalition raised alarms about risks within the Government’s approach to the procurement of PPE and relevant equipment.
Steve Goodrich, Head of Research and Investigations at Transparency International UK, said: “The next stage of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry provides a significant opportunity to answer important questions about the use of public money during the pandemic. Because of the opacity of the VIP lane and other procurement tools, it’s only thanks to the work of journalists and public interest organisations that we know even some of the facts about the award of contracts. These contracts were worth billions of pounds and far too many bear red flags for corruption. It is only through establishing what happened, when, why, how, and with whose involvement, that we can ensure accountability and learn lessons for the future.”
“This must never be allowed to happen again”
George Havenhand, Senior Legal Researcher at Spotlight on Corruption, commented: "Suspending conflict of interest rules in procurement during an emergency was always going to be a recipe for disaster. The enormous waste and cronyism that followed has rightly and understandably caused deep public anger. This must never be allowed to happen again. With the government missing crucial opportunities to ramp up protections and recover money in the Procurement Act, we look forward to helping the Inquiry establish what went wrong and how the system can be improved."
“Huge deals to untested, fly-by-night companies”
Gavin Hayman, Executive Director at Open Contracting Partnership, commented: "The whole point of procurement rules is to keep politicians out of public contracts. The UK's Covid VIP Lane put them in the driver's seat. Huge deals went to untested, fly-by-night companies and hundreds of millions of pounds were wasted on unusable PPE. It didn't have to be this way. Other countries were able to buy PPE much more openly and accountably. I am glad to contribute to the Inquiry so we don't make these mistakes again.”
“Leakage of public funds…into the pockets of those who actively sought to profit from a public health emergency”
David Rowland Director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest (CHPI) an independent think tank said: "We welcome the opportunity to provide our data and research to the Inquiry. If the public is to have confidence in government in any future pandemic it is imperative that the Inquiry gets to the bottom of where all the public money which was spent in the private sector ended up, who made the decisions and who benefitted. Lessons must be learned to prevent the huge leakage of public funds away from those who needed it most and into the pockets of those who actively sought to profit from a public health emergency."
“The human cost”
Procurement expert Chris Smith commented: "While the unforgivable waste of taxpayers’ money on PPE has been well documented, I do hope that the Inquiry will consider the human cost and the lives needlessly lost because NHS staff, patients, GPs and those in care homes did not have the PPE to protect them, and died unnecessarily as a result."
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Notes to editors
For more information, or to get in contact with the civil society experts and parliamentarians we work closely with, please get in touch:
Stevie Wolfe, Coalition Communications Manager, UK Anti-Corruption Coalition
07868 031874 // stevie.wolfe@transparency.org.uk
The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition brings together the UK’s leading anti-corruption organisations working to reduce corruption in the UK and its role in facilitating corruption abroad. Our Procurement Working Group (PWG) consists of several expert organisations with detailed national and international expertise. Members of the coalition, and partners, have already undertaken investigations into the emergency procurement of PPE, and patient capacity from private sector hospitals. We look forward to adding our voice and sharing our evidence and expertise to support the Inquiry’s investigation into the UK and devolved governments’ management of government procurement, and helping to identify important lessons.
www.ukanticorruptioncoalition.org
Full list of core participants for Module 5 of the Covid-19 Inquiry:
https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/list-of-module-5-core-participants/