Damning report by the National Audit Office into the Government’s emergency COVID procurements
1) Contracts worth £18bn were awarded, £10.5bn of these with ZERO competition
2) Spending controls were not applied due to the seniority of staff working on contracts
3) Gov did not set out a process to mitigate risks such as bias or conflicts of interest
4) A “high-priority lane” was set up for firms recommended by officials, ministers, MPs & peers
5) 1 in 10 firms going through the priority lane got contracts vs 1 in 100 for the standard lane
6) Sources of referrals to high-priority lane were sometimes not even recorded
7) One high-priority lane supplier was even added in error
8) There was not always a clear audit trail to support key procurement decisions or inadequate documentation
Conclusion: “We cannot give assurance that the Gov has adequately mitigated the increased risks arising from emergency procurement or applied appropriate commercial practices in all cases”
