A Spanish businessman who acted as a go-between to secure protective garments for NHS staff in the coronavirus pandemic, was paid $28m (£21m) in UK taxpayer cash.

A legal dispute playing out in the courts in Miami has helped shine a light on the amount of money some companies have made supplying the NHS with equipment to protect staff from Covid infection.

Earlier this year, as the coronavirus pandemic was spreading rapidly around the world, Florida-based jewellery designer Michael Saiger set up a business to supply PPE to governments. He used his experience of working with factories in China to land what are described as "a number of lucrative contracts" supplying protective gloves and gowns to the NHS. Mr Saiger signed up a Spanish businessman, Gabriel Gonzalez Andersson, to help with "procurement, logistics, due diligence, product sourcing and quality control" of the PPE equipment. In effect, Mr Andersson was expected to find a manufacturer for deals that had already been done. Mr Andersson was paid more than $28m (£21m) for his work on two government contracts to supply the NHS.

In June, Mr Saiger signed three more agreements to supply the NHS with millions of gloves and surgical gowns. When the UK government paid up, his go-between, Mr Andersson, would have been in line for a further $20m in consulting fees. But the court documents allege that once the agreements had been signed, Mr Andersson stopped doing any work for Mr Saiger. It's not clear whether Mr Andersson received any of the money for this second batch of deals.

This led to PPE deliveries being delayed to NHS frontline workers, Mr Saiger claims, and the company "scrambling" to fulfil the contracts by other means.

So far the UK's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published contracts with Mr Saiger's company, Saiger LLC, totalling more than £200m. These were awarded without being opened to competition.

Alongside the legal dispute in Florida, the deals are set to be challenged in UK courts, by campaign group the Good Law Project. It accuses government ministers of not paying "sufficient regard" to tax-payers' money over a contract with the firm.

Go-between paid £21m in taxpayer funds for NHS PPE

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54974373



Part of the billions splashed around by BJ's government - everybody benefits except the sick and the taxpayer .....

Go-between paid £21m in taxpayer funds for NHS PPE
Part of the billions splashed around by BJ's government - everybody benefits except the sick and the taxpayer .....

Go-between paid £21m in taxpayer funds for NHS PPE

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54974373



Part of the billions splashed around by BJ's government - everybody benefits except the sick and the taxpayer .....

Paying an expediting fee is perfectly normal. The amount paid is based on a number of factors. In this case £25 mil is not in the least bit excessive for the work that no doubt had to be done.

Elucidate please Todgy ??
You seem a bit vague about whether any " WORK" was done at all??
And what the going rate should be for a couple of phone calls ?

Donkeyman! 😟😟

Elucidate please Todgy ??
You seem a bit vague about whether any " WORK" was done at all??
And what the going rate should be for a couple of phone calls ?

Donkeyman! 😟😟

Even if he worked flat out all year, £25M sounds a bit OTT.

What you guys are missing is that he will have to set up a task force who will have to travel to various suppliers, agree an assortment of separate contracts, pay disbursements, engage and pay expeditors for individual subcontracts, transport to the UK, and a whole lot more besides.