Analysis of Covid-related contracts worth some £15.5 billion has identified corruption concerns, campaigners have claimed.
The research by Transparency International UK suggests there are questions to answer about the nature of 135 contracts made during the pandemic.
The group points to at least 28 contracts, worth £4.1 billion, which went to organisations with close connections at Westminster, particularly with the Conservatives who were in government during the pandemic.
It also raises concerns about contracts awarded through the VIP lane, a system deemed unlawful by the high court, of which 15 contracts worth £1.7 billion were awarded to politically connected suppliers.
The analysis also raises red flags about contracts which went to “new inexperienced suppliers”, and uncompetitive processes.
It comes as the Covid-19 Inquiry is set to reconvene for its third module, examining the impact of the pandemic on the UK’s health services.
Daniel Bruce, chief executive of Transparency International UK, said: “The scale of corruption risk in the former government’s approach to spending public money during the years of the Covid pandemic was profound.”
He added: “The Covid procurement response was marked by various points of systemic weakness and political choices that allowed cronyism to thrive, all enabled by woefully inadequate public transparency.
“As far as we can ascertain, no other country used a system like the UK’s VIP lane in their Covid response.”
He urged the authorities to “ensure full accountability”, as ministers look to appoint a Covid corruption commissioner.
The report titled Behind the Masks, due to be launched in Westminster on Monday afternoon, recommends ministers investigate the concerns it highlights, bolster its procurement practices and safeguards against impropriety.
A Conservative spokesman said: “Government policy was in no way influenced by the donations the party received – they are entirely separate.”
Rachel Reeves told the Commons in July a Covid anti-corruption probe would go ahead, aimed at clawing back money from Covid fraud.
A spokesperson for the Treasury, which is now leading efforts on investigating Covid era corruption, said: “The Chancellor has been clear that she will not tolerate waste and will appoint a Covid corruption commissioner to get back the money that is owed to the British people.
“The commissioner will report directly to the Chancellor, working with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and their report will be presented to Parliament for all Members to see.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here