Thread by @fascinatorfun

PPE suppliers with political ties given 'high-priority' status, report reveals | Politics | The Guardian
theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

Of the 493 suppliers referred to the scheme by a political or official contact, details of the individual who made the reference were recorded in the government’s case management system in fewer than half of cases.

BUT Over 200 clearly referred by MPs/ House of Lords

“Around 10% of the suppliers referred to the high-priority channel by a political contact were awarded a PPE contract, the NAO reported. Suppliers without such links, by contrast, had only a 1% chance of winning a contract (104 out of 14,892).”

And then there was the issue of retrospective contracts.

As with Topham Guerin. They started work in March. Contract turned up 2 months later.

Gove, Hancock, Johnson and Sunak no doubt wound up by Cummings and mates are running a Mickey Mouse show from #ClowningStreet

So not only did the MP crony referral route into the Cabinet office VIP channel get priority, they were ten times more likely to become a supplier (47 of them).

I hope the report itself will list how many contracts for each supplier and the total amounts involved per supplier.

The cabinet office suggests the 99.5% of the deliveries met clinical standards.

For what? Buying and FFE3 mask that turns out to meet the clinical standard for an FFE1 mask is not OK.

And what about value for money?