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18-11-2020, 12:33 PM
11

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

For those interested, a petition is available to sign:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petit...onse-threshold

Petition

Hold a public inquiry into Government contracts granted during Covid-19

There should be a public inquiry into Government contracts granted during Covid-19. Many contracts have been granted without full and open procurement processes. A public inquiry would be able to ascertain whether contracts had been procured fairly and represent value for money for tax payers.

Sign this petition
110,150 signatures (so far)

Response:

Parliament will consider this for a debate

Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate

Waiting for 7 days for a debate date
The Government reply included:

The Government is committed to adopting and encouraging greater transparency in its commercial activity. There are existing rigorous central controls in place to challenge spend robustly and to ensure that the actions of Government contracting authorities are open, fair and transparent (sic).
The Petitions Committee requested a revised response from the Government

The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) have considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt that the response did not directly address the request of petition and have therefore written back to the Government to ask them to provide a revised response.
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18-11-2020, 12:48 PM
12

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Omah ->
For those interested, a petition is available to sign:
No thanks.

The response also says:
"the private sector has assisted us to deliver over 15,000 ventilators in under four months to support the NHS; procure 32 billion items of PPE for healthcare workers; and increase testing capacity to 519,770 by the end of October."

Again: Should we instead have gone without?
? ? ? ?
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18-11-2020, 01:28 PM
13

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Zaphod ->
No thanks.

The response also says:
"the private sector has assisted us to deliver over 15,000 ventilators in under four months to support the NHS; procure 32 billion items of PPE for healthcare workers; and increase testing capacity to 519,770 by the end of October."

Again: Should we instead have gone without?
? ? ? ?
Sadly, we now in a world where racketeers, con men, Pharma Companies, demand the highest payment.

If you want to be in the queue you have to be ready to cough up (pun) otherwise some other player will get the stuff and we won't.

There are only three ways round it, in my view, although it's probably already too late.

1) The NHS needs it's own Pharma developer. Expensive but would be a dramatic life saver.

2) Opt out of bidding & wheeler dealing for the products - and die!

3) Agree controls on the Pharma Companies. (It's not going to happen).

Anyone who doesn't think bribery and corruption can be fixed has not seen much of the rest of the world.

Remember the old adage:-

"If you can't beat them , Join them!"

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18-11-2020, 01:46 PM
14

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Omah ->
Of course, dear .....
We await your solution, with interest!

Won't hold my breath!
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18-11-2020, 01:53 PM
15

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Tedc ->
Sadly, we now in a world where racketeers, con men, Pharma Companies, demand the highest payment.

If you want to be in the queue you have to be ready to cough up (pun) otherwise some other player will get the stuff and we won't.

There are only three ways round it, in my view, although it's probably already too late.

1) The NHS needs it's own Pharma developer. Expensive but would be a dramatic life saver.

2) Opt out of bidding & wheeler dealing for the products - and die!

3) Agree controls on the Pharma Companies. (It's not going to happen).

Anyone who doesn't think bribery and corruption can be fixed has not seen much of the rest of the world.

Remember the old adage:-

"If you can't beat them , Join them!"


The last thing we need is a public sector Pharma company.
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18-11-2020, 02:41 PM
16

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Bread ->
The last thing we need is a public sector Pharma company.
Actually the last thing we need is ANY public sector anything. Small government is GOOD government. Especially when combined with absolutely free markets with NO government interference.
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18-11-2020, 04:07 PM
17

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Bread ->
The last thing we need is a public sector Pharma company.
God forbid!

Of course, in times of peril the sharks will always come out.
As in all cases, market forces dictates, but what the hell else could the Gov't do when the NHS was in dire straits? the priority was to get what was needed as quickly as possible. People were dying in their thousands for goodness sake, cost had to play second fiddle at the time.

There will be plenty of time please God, once this virus is eradicated, to find out what happened with regard to costs and profits made by the sharks, but now is not the time.
It was every country for themselves and their people. What price do you put on that when in the midst of it?
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18-11-2020, 06:13 PM
18

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by shropshiregirl ->
God forbid!

Of course, in times of peril the sharks will always come out.
As in all cases, market forces dictates, but what the hell else could the Gov't do when the NHS was in dire straits? the priority was to get what was needed as quickly as possible. People were dying in their thousands for goodness sake, cost had to play second fiddle at the time.

There will be plenty of time please God, once this virus is eradicated, to find out what happened with regard to costs and profits made by the sharks, but now is not the time.
It was every country for themselves and their people. What price do you put on that when in the midst of it?
Exactly !

we should be going after the people that tried to screw the government in its hour of need by asking silly prices for PPE like the guy who owns the jewellery shop in Spain. What was the government supposed to do ? Say "no" its too expensive ?

If only we knew we wrapping a sock around your face was just as good as an N95 mask then we wouldn't have had this problem. Thanks a lot PHE you bunch of tossers
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19-11-2020, 11:35 AM
19

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Bread ->
The last thing we need is a public sector Pharma company.
If we look forward, at the possibility of new virusses (viri?) coming along every couple of years, there will never be enough left in our budget after paying out to all of the Pharmas.

Having watched the documentary about the Plagues in London, and all the ones since then, it's easy to predict further disasters.

One thing that doc showed was the dangerous things stored around the world.

Even in the UK, where Porton Down was suggested as having stuff which might kill us all if accidently released.

I'm not batting for "Private" ,as we have it today,but I feel that we good get Porton to own, examine, and manage research & delivery for future defence and recovery.

One good piece of news, this week, was that Boris is setting up a group to manage safety routines in future pandemics.

i.e. Processes, procedures & everything ,tested and monitored regularly to ensure we have the plans in place.

We need to be ready - some country might well send us another "gift" quite soon.

The same chaos as we''ve just experienced must not happen again.
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19-11-2020, 11:43 AM
20

Re: Government told to ‘come clean’ over Covid deals by spending watchdog

Originally Posted by Tedc ->
If we look forward, at the possibility of new virusses (viri?) coming along every couple of years, there will never be enough left in our budget after paying out to all of the Pharmas.

Having watched the documentary about the Plagues in London, and all the ones since then, it's easy to predict further disasters.

One thing that doc showed was the dangerous things stored around the world.

Even in the UK, where Porton Down was suggested as having stuff which might kill us all if accidently released.

I'm not batting for "Private" ,as we have it today,but I feel that we good get Porton to own, examine, and manage research & delivery for future defence and recovery.

One good piece of news, this week, was that Boris is setting up a group to manage safety routines in future pandemics.

i.e. Processes, procedures & everything ,tested and monitored regularly to ensure we have the plans in place.

We need to be ready - some country might well send us another "gift" quite soon.

The same chaos as we''ve just experienced must not happen again.

I agree we should have a vaccines and diagnostics industry, but left to the private sector, the same goes for the Pharma industry.

The "state" cure would be a disaster all round - it would cost the tax payer billions and billions a year in drug discovery and failed clinical trials. Also, the government wouldn't pay the money for the top scientists, data managers, regulatory staff, clinicians, doctors, research scientists etc etc etc.

It would be a complete disaster.
 
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