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https://order-order.com/2021/03/30/l...-behind-boris/

The role of a former Tory parliamentary candidate and party donor in a £100m government deal to buy PPE has been revealed after an apparent admin error.

The deal for face masks was signed in July, but the names of those involved were blacked out when the contract was finally published seven months later. A second document listed Samir Jassal, an ex-councillor who has campaigned with the PM, as the supplier's contact.

It is the latest in a series of revelations about PPE deals awarded to those with government connections.

Although the deal, for protective masks for hospital workers, was signed last year, the details only came to light in March after a court rebuked the government for failing to publish contracts within the legal time frame. Health Secretary Matt Hancock was found to have acted unlawfully for this failure.

Even when the deal involving Mr Jassal was finally published, the contact details for the supplier were blacked out. Full contracts are routinely redacted when published by the government.

However, in what appears to have been a clerical error, a separate document published with the contract gives Mr Jassal's name. He is listed as the "supplier's contact" to Pharmaceuticals Direct Limited, the company paid to supply the masks.

More details about a controversial "VIP" fast-track route for PPE firms with connections to government have emerged in the High Court.

One official complained the procurement team was "drowning" in high priority requests without the correct certification or due diligence.

One of the deals being challenged concerns 50 million FFP2 face masks supplied by the firm Ayanda Capital, which now cannot be used in the NHS because of concerns over their fit.

The court heard the company was routed through the VIP lane because its representative, Andrew Mills, who had been chasing senior officials for a decision, was an advisor to the government's Board of Trade.

The Good Law Project is also challenging the government over its decision to award contracts to a small Sussex-based pest control firm, Pestfix.

In February, the BBC revealed that 17 million high grade FFP3 face masks the company had supplied would not be used as intended because they failed testing.

Lawyers for The Good Law Project argued that information about the company's links with government was being kept from them because important details in emails had been blacked out * by officials.

The government's spending watchdog has previously reported that the firm was put on the VIP lane by mistake. But emails disclosed in court show the company was "known" to a senior official in the Department of Health and Social Care via a relative.

Daniel Bruce, Chief Executive of Transparency International UK said: The audit found 73 contracts which "merit further investigation" - with a total value of £3,700,000,000. It amounts to just under 20% of the £18,000,000,000 worth of pandemic related contracts handed out between February and November 2020. They include:

• 24 PPE contracts worth £1,600,000,000 were warded to people or firms with known political connections to the Conservative Party.
• 3 worth £536,000,000 were handed to politically connected companies for testing related services.
• And a further 3 were awarded to politically connected companies for other services.

Transparency International's audit found that Between February and November 2020, 98.9% of COVID-19 related contracts by value (£17,000,000,000) were awarded without any form of competition, "many without adequate justification."

Last November saw the National Audit Office (NAO), the public spending watchdog, publish a scathing report which criticised the way normal standards of transparency had been set aside during pandemic procurement.

A Former Tory Party chairman and tennis pal of David Cameron’s was given a job advising a Health Minister at the height of the coronavirus pandemic – despite potential conflicts of interest.

Lord Andrew Feldman advised Lord James Bethell* as the crisis tightened its grip last spring.

Lord Feldman’s lobbying firm Tulchan represented a client, Bunzl, which provided vital NHS personal protective equipment.

On March 22 last year, emails seen by the Financial Times show that Lord Feldman sent a message to Bunzl representatives, copying Andrew Wood, a Government official at the Cabinet Office, saying: “I have spoken to him [Wood] about Bunzl and the opportunity for you to supply the UK government with equipment. He will be in touch.”

A £22.6million deal for personal protective equipment was struck that April, according to the paper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_..._Baron_Bethell

* Bethell entered the House of Lords in July 2018, after successfully contesting a Conservative hereditary peers' by-election.

In July 2019, he was appointed a Lord-in-Waiting and, in March 2020, was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care.

It was reported in November 2020 by the Times of London that Bethell is the Minister for NHS Test and Trace, a novelty formed as part of the Johnson ministry's efforts to control the coronavirus. He "was a surprise appointment in March having chaired Matt Hancock's leadership campaign in 2019 and giving a £5,000 donation." He opened himself to charges of "cronyism" published in The Guardian over his selection to an advisory role of lobbyists like George Pascoe-Watson, whose clients include the Boston Consulting Group "which has won several large government contracts during the pandemic."

The UK government made “significant mistakes” in its purchase of Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) which led to the “truly tragic waste” of hundreds of millions of pounds spent on items that were “useless to the NHS”, it was claimed in the High Court on Tuesday.

The Good Law Project, a not for profit campaign group, alleged at the start of a high-profile judicial review challenge that the government had “spent vast sums of money” without applying basic technical steps and due diligence in a procurement process which was “fundamentally not transparent, unequal and unfair.”

Jason Coppel QC, the barrister representing the Good Law Project, claimed to the High Court that the procurement process gave rise “to very serious concerns as to the management of large amounts of public money”. He added: “Enormous quantities of equipment were purchased without proper technical checks, at inflated prices” which were “useless to the NHS”.

Coppel claimed to the High Court that £595m was spent by the government on contracts to supply PPE from Ayanda and Pestfix but “well over half was wasted” by not being suitable for the health service.

The government set up a VIP lane reserved for PPE suppliers who had been recommended by either health officials, ministers or MPs. An investigation by the public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, last November revealed that these companies were 10 times more likely to be awarded contracts than other firms, prompting the NAO to conclude that “standards of transparency” had not been consistently met.

The court was told Ayanda, a financial services firm, was placed in the VIP lane after interventions by businessman Andrew Mills, a former member of the UK Board of Trade. It also heard how Pestfix, a pest control company, was allocated to the VIP lane because a former Pestfix director was an “old school friend” of the father-in-law of Steve Oldfield, chief commercial officer of The Department of Health and Social Care. The government awarded £340m of contracts to Pestfix, which had net assets of just £18,000.

The three companies are interested parties in the judicial review brought against the government by the Good Law Project. They did not make submissions during Tuesday’s opening day of evidence but are legally represented.

The case continues.

TWO UK Government departments told the official spending watchdog not to reveal the names of firms that had access to a "VIP lane" to win Covid contracts.

It was recently revealed that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Cabinet Office "requested" that the National Audit Office (NAO) not reveal names on a high-priority list which were 10 times more likely to get government contracts to supply personal protective equipment (PPE).

In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from openDemocracy, the NAO said the departments had “requested” that it keep the list of suppliers – including 47 suppliers that were awarded contracts – private because its release “would have a detrimental impact on both suppliers and [the departments’] own commercial operations”.

It is the latest in a long list of evidence showing that the Tory government granted preferential treatment to a VIP list of businesses that contacted officials privately rather than going through official channels.

The NAO's investigation into government procurement during the pandemic, published in November, found that there were no criteria for referrals to the high-priority lane and that the source of the referral was not always recorded. Fewer than 250 sources for the leads were recorded, 144 of which came from the private offices of ministers.

The Cabinet Office has also refused to release names of suppliers.

Questions about Matt Hancock's appointment of former lobbyist Gina Coladangelo have surfaced after pictures in The Sun newspaper appeared to show the health secretary, who is married, kissing the aide in his office.

According to the newspaper, the images, which appear to be from CCTV footage, were taken on 6 May from the Department of Health and Social Care building.

The Sunday Times reported last year that Mr Hancock had failed to declare he had appointed Ms Coladangelo as an unpaid adviser on a six-month contract last March and later gave her a role on the board of the Department of Health. She is listed on the department's website as a non-executive director.

Ms Coladangelo was at Oxford University at the same time as the health secretary.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said "In terms of rules, anyone who's been appointed has to go through an incredibly rigorous process in government. Whatever the rules are, the rules will have to be followed."

A relative of the Whitehall director alleged to have had an extramarital affair with Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is an executive at a private healthcare company which has won a string of NHS contracts.

Sky News can reveal that Roberto Coladangelo - who is understood to be Gina Coladangelo's brother - works at Partnering Health Limited (PHL Group), a specialist in the provision of urgent and primary care services to NHS patients.