Unpeeling the Fluff - Layer by Layer - Part 8

Twenty million to McGregor Cory Limited (DHL) for increased PCR storage and kitting capacity.

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

Failed Covid Contracts

Now we are on to our eighth inquiry:

about this contract, awarded to DHL for £20 million. It lasted 6 months, from October 2021 to April 2022.

In the more information section, there is an interesting paragraph that explains how liability will work:

With a clear explanation of how much the taxpayer will have to cough up if things go wrong:

And a crystal clear summary of the operational budget:

Got it? And no, it isn’t Pac-Man.

It’s all very well for two old geezers to make fun of all this, but DHSC had to obey orders.

In addition, this contract followed a negotiated procedure without prior publication (above threshold), which is fully justified here:

“A negotiated procedure without prior publication is a method of public procurement that allows a contracting authority to award a contract without announcing a competition call. It should be used under specific and limited circumstances. Supposedly, when a competitive process is not feasible or suitable.  COVID-19 meant that the strong justification for bypassing standard procedures was discarded”.

TOGS

A juicy contract to prepare to expand the logistics to up to 100K PCR tests a day, which (as our readers know) were completely useless to identify active cases as they were used without following PHE’s own robust guidance. Follow the madness of qualitative PCR and zero Covid to the end of the rainbow.

This post was written by two dogged old geezers who reassure their long-suffering readers that this is the last but one inquiry of the series. Unless something else turns up.

In fact, something interesting has turned up.