Contracts, Data and Investigations: Edition 2021-01-29
This week's content: Tracking vaccine contracts in Argentina, Europe and Mexico, PPE deals in Afghanistan and Chile, and a quiz from the Kyrgyz Republic
More details on COVID-19 vaccine contracts are starting to emerge as drug makers struggle with delivery schedules.
The contract between AstraZeneca and the European Commission has now been published, redacting key information such as prices.
In Mexico, PODER was able to identify the contract for the AstraZeneca vaccine at a value of US$ 309.6m. While the contract information doesn’t list the number of shots purchased, government announcements indicate the contract covers 77.4 million shots, resulting in a cost of $4 each, report Claudia Ocaranza and Queletzu Aspra.
In Argentina, La Nación’s Fabiola Czubaj, Iván Ruiz, and Delfina Arambillet track the negotiations on the US$ 230m vaccine deal for Russia’s Sputnik V at $10 per each shot, via a Russian firm without employers and history set up by the Russian Direct Investment Fund to sell the vaccine.
When vaccine contracts are not published, companies can dictate the terms. In the Financial Times, David Allen Green argues that public supply contracts should always be in the public domain. More voices are starting to call for publicizing contracts writes the New York Times.
Bloomberg is tracking deals and shots purchased by countries globally.
Under Operation Moonshot, the UK spent £800m on rapid tests for millions of people that were later found to give the wrong results as often as 60% of the time, the Guardian’s Sarah Boseley and Felicity Lawrence write. The provider Innova Medical Group is now believed to be the largest single recipient of payments from UK government contracts during the pandemic.
As a result of last edition’s Washington Post investigation finding that the 11,200 ventilators made by a well-connected company were ill-suited for COVID-19 patients and remain in a warehouse in the US, the deal is now under investigation by the House report Reed Albergotti and Aaron Gregg.
In more encouraging news, in addition to the Corporate Transparency Act approved in early January that requires most US companies to register their true owners, Section 885 of the defense bill will require companies receiving federal contracts of more than $500,000 to disclose who really owns them publicly. Tim Stretton covers the details for POGO.
An investigation into the companies benefitting from emergency contracts during the pandemic in Chile finds increased prices, contract awards to family members of officials, and more than 100 firms created just months before winning direct awards for millions of pesos. The investigation was carried out by Paulette Desormeaux, Juan José Lyon, and Constanza Pérez at Salud con Lupa, Cristián Ascencio at CONNECTAS, Alejandro Ahumada at El Mercurio de Antofagasta, and José Montecino.
In Afghanistan, the Public Health Department of the northern Sar-i-Pul province has purchased 300 types of medical items at 139 million afghanis above their normal market price, reports Abdul Raqeeb Sail for Pajhwok. See the full list of items (PDF).
In Kenya, Africa Uncensored finds that between 2014 and 2016, two companies linked to the Kitui South County parliament member who chaired the National Assembly’s Health Committee were paid at least KSh24.2 million to deliver medical supplies under single-source agreements.
In 2020, Kyrgyz officials spent US$ 33m on direct purchases, including goods for the treatment of COVID-19. But public contracts did not only cover medicines and PPE, but many other unexpected goods. Kloop’s Ekaterina Reznikova shares an interactive quiz to explore what has been bought.
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Public procurement is government’s number one corruption risk, so it comes as no surprise that there is little change in Transparency International’s latest edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index, as corruption has been an ongoing issue throughout COVID-19 procurement. There even is a newsletter dedicated to it…
To dig deeper into public procurement, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) has published a new report on public procurement transparency, covering 40 countries globally. Open contracting reformers in countries such as Ukraine, Moldova, and Paraguay are leading the table.
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For our recommendations, resources and tools, check our COVID-19 resource page. Our friends at the GIJN have pulled together some tips and tricks for investigating public procurement. This newsletter has been put together by the Open Contracting Partnership. Comments? Suggestions? Got a story you’ve written to share? Write to Georg at gneumann@open-contracting.org. Thanks for reading.
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