Responding to report from National Audit Office [1], Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley said:
“Back in June I wrote to the NAO asking them to look into these contracts, so I welcome their report this morning.
“There has been a very bad smell around the awarding of Covid contracts from the start but I’m horrified to learn this morning that £10.5bn of public money was spent without open competition. From the party that has always boasted of its careful management of the public finances this is also the height of hypocrisy.
“The whole idea of a ‘fast lane’ also opens the risk of corruption. How could people gain access to this fast lane unless they had contacts with the Conservative party? The fact that there was no transparency or documentation explaining how this fast lane could be accessed adds to the sense of a corrupt process and raises serious concerns about conflicts of interest.”
“We now need a much deeper and wider investigation into why billions in public money was wasted on suppliers with limited experience and totally superfluous middle-men.”
ENDS
Notes
1
https://www.nao.org.uk/report/government-procurement-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
2
Green MP Caroline Lucas is part of a legal action to challenge the opaque award of Covid contracts: https://goodlawproject.org/update/unpublished-contracts-permission/