Anti-corruption campaigners have welcomed Rachel Reeve’s plans to launch new investigations into more than £600m of COVID contracts.

The Chancellor’s announcement comes just weeks after Transparency International UK released a landmark study into UK COVID procurement practices identifying 135 high-risk contracts with a value of £15.3 billion with three or more corruption red flags.[1]

Transparency International UK have urged authorities to investigate these 135 high-risk contracts and had written to the Chancellor with a detailed overview of the findings and the contracts involved.

Daniel Bruce, Chief Executive, Transparency International UK said:

“We have repeatedly warned of the scale of corruption risk in the former government’s approach to procurement during the pandemic and have identified over £15 billion of high-risk contracts in need of investigation.

“Today’s announcement is an important first step towards full accountability for the serious procurement failings we saw during the pandemic and we urge the Chancellor to launch similar investigations into the 135 contracts we’ve identified.

“Such investigations offer an important chance for the new government to recoup some of the millions of pounds of public money wasted on these contracts and implement lessons learned to ensure this never happens again.”

The Chancellor’s announcement comes just weeks after Transparency International UK released a landmark study into UK COVID procurement practices identifying 135 high-risk contracts with a value of £15.3 billion with three or more corruption red flags.[1]

Daniel Bruce is due to speak at an Institute for Government fringe event at 10:30 am on COVID procurement alongside journalist Katy Balls, the IFG’s Nick Davies and Joseph Powell MP. [2]

ENDS

Notes to Editors

[1]  The analysis of COVID-19 contracts used 14 red flags covering three aspects of the procurement process (risks in the procurement process, risks in the supplier profile and poor contract outcomes) as well as cross-cutting risks to help identify those that should be subjected to heightened scrutiny.

The full Behind the Masks report is available here: https://www.transparency.org.uk/new-research-raises-corruption-questions...

[2] For more information on the event: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/ifg-labour-party-conference-2024