PPE

[northwestman]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/25/uk-government-wasted-nearly-10bn-on-unused-covid-ppe-figures-show

Ministers have been accused of throwing away taxpayers’ money “as if it were confetti” after official figures revealed that the government wasted nearly £10bn on defective or unusable personal protective equipment during the Covid crisis.

Annual accounts for the Department of Health and Social Care published on Thursday show that nearly three-quarters of the money it spent on PPE during the pandemic has been written off.

The figures show £9.9bn of the £13.6bn worth of PPE that the department bought between 2020 and 2022 was unusable or its value is now less than the government paid for it. This includes defective or unsuitable equipment as well as PPE that could not be used before its expiry date.

The figures come as the National Crime Agency investigates allegations of bribery and fraud in the awarding of PPE contracts.

[staffordshrew]

What did you expect? We had an inept Health Secretary, a befuddled Prime Minister and their Tory chums prepared to take full advantage of the government's urgent needs.

[northwestman]

www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/17/boss-us-firm-uk-covid-contracts-accused-squandering-millions-on-jets-properties

Boss of US firm given £4bn in UK Covid contracts accused of squandering millions on jets and properties.

Rishi Sunak’s team helped fast-track deal with firm founded by Charles Huang, who says contracts generated $2bn profit.

Innova’s boss, Charles Huang, is accused by former associates of “squandering” or moving $1bn of those profits, spending lavishly on luxury aircraft, an $18m house in Los Angeles and “homes for his mistresses”.

[northwestman]

goodlawproject.org/how-weve-laid-the-foundations-for-billions-to-be-clawed-back-from-the-ppe-scandal/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=glp_post_12459&utm_medium=social_media&utm_content=13-06-2024

The PPE scandal is one of the most egregious examples of political sleaze and mismanagement of public money in recent memory. £10bn was wasted on unusable or unused PPE – and that’s a figure that’s come from the government’s own mouth.
So how on earth did the government go from being unable to provide basic PPE to frontline workers at the outbreak of Covid-19 to having vast stockpiles of substandard and useless protective gowns, masks, goggles and gloves we’re still paying millions to keep stored in containers, some of them owned by Tory donors?

In so many cases, the companies referred through the VIP Lane supplied PPE at highly-inflated prices that ended up unfit for purpose.

But we’ve now been given a ray of hope that our efforts exposing this shameful chapter in our nation’s recent history will help to secure some justice. The Labour Party has now announced it will appoint a covid corruption commissioner to claw back some of the billions the government gave away to its friends and associates.

[zenfootball2]

Concern over corruption red flags in 20% of UK's PPE ...

Transparency International UK |
www.transparency.org.uk › track-and-trace-uk-P...
April 22, 2021 – The way the UK Government handled bids for supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) and other COVID-19 response contracts appears ...