Unpeeling the Fluff - Layer by Layer - Part 3

The investigation of 9/4000+ government contracts (note: this post contains an experimental TOGS)

In Failed Covid Contracts, we provided examples of contracts awarded to various bodies by sundry governmental agencies during the madness of 2020-21.

We used Contract Finder, a helpful tool that identified nine of the most atypical contracts we could find. They all have some common features. High value, all together £249,283,153 of our money, lack of clarity as to what the tender was about, all issued during the panicky 2020-21 period and, most of all, lack of visible deliverables.

In other words: what did we get for a quarter of a billion? How did Joe or Jane Taxpayer benefit from all of this kerfuffle?

We crafted nine FOI requests related to the nine tenders, essentially asking the same question: what did we receive for our money?

Let’s be clear on one point: this auditing should not be left to two old geezers. Parliament, the National Audit Office and single citizens should demand to know how the cash was spent.

When Carl first spotted the list of contracts, we went to an MSM outlet offering them evidence to start an investigation. We soon realised that they were asking us to do the spade work while they could write up the latest colour change of the Chancellor’s hair.

So we pushed off our wheelchairs and totted it up as one more example of the decline of journalism.

In this series, we keep you informed about our efforts to hold these bodies accountable for their actions. Each request is sent one or two days apart to minimise the risk of conflation by the governmental body of separate requests into one “too big too handle”. We number them 1 to 9. Any answers (we shall be so lucky) or subsequent substantive activity (so, not receipts) will be numbered 2a, 2b and so on.

Here is the first attempt at the third contract on our list.

We are trying to understand how bankrupt we are and why. The TTE office would like to know what the deliverables were and where we can see what the taxpayer got for £32,772,344. 

For those interested in reading more, the contract announcement is available. The contract commenced on 19 March 2020, before the UK lockdown was announced, and it was supposed to be completed within weeks, given the strategy was to flatten the curve within two weeks. It ended three months later, on 20 June 2020, and the announcement was published a long time after the award and closure, on 29 April 2021.

The odd chronology is explained in the announcement: “Due to system changes made by Contracts Finder and the fact that this contract has been signed by the contracting authority with retrospective effect (as reflected in the related FTS notice), the contract award date reported in the Awarded Information Section refers to the day before the services commenced as opposed to the date on which the contract was signed.”

In other words, cash to the fore and contracts to the rear, as it was an emergency, was it not? Eleven million a month should cover it, don’t you think? Except that what exactly “it” is remains unclear (see below). 

While we patiently await the response from the DHSC, we examined the “More Information” section (scroll down to the end of the Announcement), hoping to obtain more information than the brief title provided: “Provision of support to the Department of Health and Social Care to expand testing for Covid-19”.

There are 19 links to as many documents provided. That’s a lot, so bear with us as we summarise what we found. Again, you can have a look for yourselves by scrolling down the Announcement here.

We first hit a document with the most promising title of NTP_PILLAR_2_WP.3_ResultsWorkstream_FINAL Deloitte redaction_Redacted

We initially thought this was a deliverable, but the Results cited in the title are those of the enormously costly, ramshackle and wholly misleading Covid testing programme, and the “FINAL” bit relates to the final version of the document. So, no joy in looking for outcomes and deliverables here, although the requirement is more detailed. Carl perked up at this point and asked, "Who did they get to do the job?" Are they qualified?

We quickly found the answer: it’s good old Dr Blackbox.

Yes, yes, but what is their, his/her/its role?