Corruption probe finds ‘red flags’ in more than 130 Covid contracts

An anti-corruption charity says it has raised serious concerns about more than £15.3 billion worth of contracts awarded by the Conservative government during the Covid pandemic, equating to one in every £3 spent.

Transparency International UK found 135 “risky” contracts with at least three red flags – warning signs of a risk of corruption.

Twenty-eight contracts worth £4.1bn went to companies with known political connections, while 51 contracts worth £4bn went through a “VIP lane” to companies recommended by MPs and peers. The High Court ruled the practice was unlawful.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Government policy has not been influenced in any way by the donations the party has received – they are completely separate from it.”

Transparency International UK analysed 5,000 contracts for red flags.

The charity said its analysis also found that almost two-thirds of high-value contracts for the supply of items such as masks and protective medical equipment during the pandemic, worth a total of £30.7 billion, were awarded without any form of competition.

Another eight contracts worth a total of £500m went to suppliers no older than 100 days – another warning sign of corruption.

Normal safeguards to protect the public procurement process from corruption have been suspended during the pandemic.

The government, led by Boris Johnson, justified this at the time by stressing the need to shorten the procurement process and thus speed up the delivery of much-needed items such as personal protective equipment (PPE).

But Transparency International UK, a key participant in the Covid-19 inquiry, which begins its third module on Monday, said the suspension of normal safeguards was often unjustified, costing public purses billions and undermining trust in political institutions.

She urges authorities to investigate the risky contracts she has identified.

The charity says it has written to the National Audit Office, the Public Accounts Committee and Chancellor Rachel Reeves detailing the findings and the contracts affected.

Chief Executive Daniel Bruce said: “Finding multiple red flags across more than £15bn of contacts, representing a third of all such spend, points to more than coincidence or incompetence.”

He added that “the response to the Covid tenders has been marked by several points of systemic weakness and political choices that allowed cronyism to flourish, all enabled by woefully inadequate public transparency.

“As far as we can tell, no other country has used a system like the UK VIP lane in their response to Covid.

“The cost to the public purse has already become increasingly clear with huge sums of money lost on unusable PPE from poorly qualified suppliers,” Mr Bruce continued. “We strongly urge the Covid-19 investigations and the planned Covid Corruption Commissioner to be fully accountable and that the new government swiftly implements the lessons learned.”

Of the total £48.1 billion of public money spent on private sector contracts related to the Covid-19 pandemic, £14.9 billion was written off by the Department of Health and Social Care.

According to another report, around £1 billion of that was spent on PPE that was not deemed fit for use. Non-GBOIn the spotlight: corruption.

An investigation by the National Audit Office into government procurement during the pandemic, published in november 2020found no evidence of ministerial involvement in procurement decisions or contract management.