A HEALTH minister has admitted “mistakes were made” on the procurement of PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Government has been accused of failing to carry out due diligence in awarding contracts with millions wasted on fraud and equipment not fit for use.
Ministers claim they were under pressure to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) where they could because of a global shortage.
However, health minister Lord Markham today admitted that mistakes were made during the process of assigning contracts, with around 5% of items either undelivered or unfit for purpose.
He said: “This was at a time of unprecedented action required.
“Of the 38 billion PPE items ordered, 98% were delivered and just 3% were unfit for purpose.
“Now, within those, clearly there’s action that needs to be worked on and there is action that is being done to pursue them in terms of those damages.”
He added: “The priority was clearly getting equipment to help protect and save lives and that was what was done.
“Were mistakes made? Of course.
“And are we seeking to address those now in terms of going back and taking action against those people? Yes, of course we are, but I think we need to keep it in context that the priority undoubtedly was to buy PPE and protect lives.”
The Government has also come under fire for the use of VIP lanes, whereby preferential treatment for public contracts can be given to organisations recommended by MPs and peers.
This week, the Guardian reported that Baroness Mone and her children received £29 million originating from profits of the company PPE Medpro, which received a huge government contract after she recommended it to ministers.
Labour have claimed there was a “total failure of due diligence” on the company.
Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, said: “Apparently PPE Medpro was awarded contracts via the VIP lane amounting to £200 million, despite it not even existing when ministers were first contacted.
“Then, just over a year ago, Lord Bethell – then the health minister – said discussions potentially leading to litigation were ongoing in respect to 40 PPE contracts with a combined value of £1.2 billion covering 1.7bn items of PPE.
“The following January, Lord Agnew resigned, criticising the Government’s track record in countering fraud across government.”
Lord Agnew of Oulton was a Tory treasury minister, who resigned over how the Government handled fraudulent Covid business loans.
Lord Markham said: “I think people have accepted that mistakes were made and people have accepted at the same time as well that the high priority lane should not have been on the basis of referrals, but actually should put more burden of proof on the applicants so they could get more information and sift it that way.”
Despite opposition to the so-called "VIP lanes", a bid to ban them was today rejected by the Lords, after Cabinet Office minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe insisted safeguards were in place.
