The Guardian view on pandemic procurement: contracts for cronies | Editorial
A report on government contracts during the first wave of the pandemic reveals an alarming disregard for due diligence and process
At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson suggested that during the first wave of Covid-19 there had been a need to “remove blockages to the procurement process” to deal with the pandemic. Well, that’s certainly one way of putting it.
The damning report released this week by government auditors, which examined Covid-related contracts handed to companies during the spring and summer, is both shocking and illuminating. In some cases, ministers did not so much remove “blockages” as forget about due diligence and proper process altogether. Cronyism was rampant, as companies with the ear of ministers and Tory MPs accessed huge sums of taxpayers’ money.
Read the original article at The Guardian