Thread by @BylineTimes

Lots of journalists are now (finally) waking up to the Great Procurement Scandal.

We have been covering this subject for months, and if you've been shocked by the stories of the past few days, wait until you read this thread... 🔽🔽
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😷 A company with no employees or trading history awarded a £25m contract to supply PPE

(📅 2 July - H/t @StephenD_)
bylinetimes.com/2020/07/02/lif…

📲 Digital firm that ran 2019 Conservative social media operation awarded a £3m contract to handle COVID communications

(📅 15 July - H/t @WritesBright)
bylinetimes.com/2020/07/15/rig…

💰 PPE contracts worth £25m+ awarded to...

🇵🇦 A firm whose owner was listed in the Panama Papers
🪖 A one-man firm run by former army consultant
👗 A fast-fashion retailer

(📅 29 July)
bylinetimes.com/2020/07/29/ano…

In fact, the Government spent £364m on bodysuits, yet had only distributed 432,000 by September (💰 that's £840 a-pop)

bylinetimes.com/2020/09/01/gov…

😴 £52m+ in contracts for hand sanitiser awarded to a dormant firm

(📅 2 September)
bylinetimes.com/2020/09/02/gov…

💰💰💰 A deal worth £122m for gowns awarded to a 44-day-old firm

(📅 14 September)
bylinetimes.com/2020/09/14/gov…

😷 £70m contract for face masks to a “luxury packaging” firm with £46k in the bank

(📅 8 October)
bylinetimes.com/2020/10/08/70-…

💰💰💰💰 £2.3 billion of PPE supplied by a firm with just 25 staff

(📅 15 October)
bylinetimes.com/2020/10/15/uk-…

🤵‍♂️A business associate of the Government’s “PPE Tsar”, awarded an in-house HR contract worth £300k

(📅 20 October)
bylinetimes.com/2020/10/20/lor…

🛏️ £5m deal for gloves awarded to a hotel carpeting company...

(📅 24 October)

bylinetimes.com/2020/10/24/mil…

🔵💰 At least £526.3m in PPE contracts awarded to firms with links to Conservative Party

(📅 25 October)

bylinetimes.com/2020/10/25/500…

🧤 Contracts worth £40.5 million for gloves and face shields awarded to a “micro” firm with £134,500 assets

(📅 26 October)
bylinetimes.com/2020/10/26/mil…

💼 An outsourcing giant paid £1,800 A DAY to supply a senior figure to the ‘test and trace’ system

(📅 28 October)
bylinetimes.com/2020/10/28/out…

🔵 While a minister held a meeting with a firm owned by a Conservative donor, a month before the company was awarded a series of PPE deals worth at least £154.7 million

(📅 2 November)
bylinetimes.com/2020/11/02/min…

🇨🇳 And the Government has even fuelled human rights abuses by purchasing masks made by Uyghur Muslims in China, most likely under forced labour conditions

(📅 5 November)
bylinetimes.com/2020/11/05/uk-…

🧬 A £199m contract to develop testing volume, to a one-month-old DNA analysis firm (Hancock and Cummings love genomics).

(📅 9 November)
bylinetimes.com/2020/11/09/119…

🌴 Contracts worth anywhere between £200m and £389m, awarded to the (now notorious) Miami fashion designer

(📅 12 November)

bylinetimes.com/2020/11/12/mia…

✝️ And finally a series of contracts worth up to £1.1bn, awarded to firms with apparent ties to an evangelical Christian sect

(📅 18 November)
bylinetimes.com/2020/11/18/ply…

This has of course culminated in a (rightly) damning report from the National Audit Office, pointing out how the Government gave preferential treatment to firms with political links, and ignored basic conflicts of interest 🔽🔽

bylinetimes.com/2020/11/18/pro…

Our reporter @WritesBright has led the way on the Great Procurement Scandal, but credit must also go to various others working to expose this issue, not least: @JolyonMaugham, @GoodLawProject, @openDemocracy, @sophie_e_hill, @allthecitizens, @DawnButlerBrent, @GeorgeMonbiot

To stay ahead of the Government's private sector procurement splurge, and to fund more investigations, please subscribe to Byline Times – for just £3 a-month 📰🔽
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