The Chumocracy

 

“The UK government has awarded £10 billion worth of contracts related to the coronavirus crisis to private companies since March 2020, mostly without a competitive tender.” The Financial Times

Cabinet Office Minister, Julia Lopez, has responded to criticisms of a chumocracy by assuring us that ‘The government will carry out its own inspection on procurements during the pandemic.”

Here is a list of the Chumocrats at work:

BARONESS DIDO HARDING, Chair of NHS Improvement and NHS Test and Trace is the wife of Tory MP JOHN PENROSE, who has responsibilities for ….. anti-corruption.

KATE BINGHAM, head of the government’s vaccine taskforce, is married to Tory Minister JESSE NORMAN and is a business colleague of DOMINIC CUMMINGS.

RUPERT SOAMES, CEO of SERCO, and awarded £57 million in Covid contracts, is brother of former Tory MP SIR NICHOLAS SOAMES whose wife, CAMILLA SOAMES, is a Tory party donor.

PAUL STEPHENSON, director of HANBURY STRATEGY and awarded £900,000 in Covid contracts, is a friend and business associate of DOMINIC CUMMINGS.

SEAN TOPHAM and BEN GUERIN of TOPHAM GUERIN and awarded £3 million in Covid contracts, were behind the Tory party 2019 election strategy and worked with DOMINIC CUMMINGS.

JAMES FRAYNE and RACHEL WOLFF of PUBLIC FIRST and awarded £840,000 in Covid contracts, are friends of DOMINIC CUMMINGS and MICHAEL GOVE.

THEODORE AGNEW, responsible for the government’s digital technology, is a major shareholder in FACULTY, awarded £500,000 in Covid contracts. He is also a business associate of DOMINIC CUMMINGS and worked with him on Vote Leave.

DAVID MELLER of MELLER DESIGNS, awarded £148 million in Covid-related contracts, is a Tory donor and friend of MICHAEL GOVE.

STEVE DECHAN, director of P14 MEDICAL, awarded £120 million in Covid contracts, is a former Tory councillor.

SIR MERRICK COCKELL, employed by PA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD who were awarded £156 million in Covid-related contracts, is a former Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council

STEVE PARKIN, Chairman of CLIPPER LOGISTICS, and awarded £1 million in Covid-related contracts, is a major Tory Party donor.

ANTHONY PAGE of PPE MEDPRO Ltd, who were awarded £203 million in Covid-related contracts, was secretary of the firm that provides branding services to Tory peer Baroness Mone’s company.

Daniel Bruce, the chief executive of anti-corruption campaigners Transparency International UK, warned the government should not use the crisis like a “blank cheque to get rid of controls around transparency and accountability ….The alarming number of contracts seemingly awarded without any competition risks setting a dangerous precedent.”

I leave you with this one. Controversy and mystery surrounds a £32m Covid-related contract handed to a rodent infestation control company called PestFix to source surgical gowns. It has listed net assets of only £18,000.