Contracts, Data and Investigations: Edition 2021-02-05
This week's content: Vaccine contract transparency is a matter of trust. Contract negotiations in Latin America, vaccine rollout software in Canada and the US, ventilators, masks, COVID-19 test center
This newsletter gathers stories covering the use and abuse of government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Share your stories and investigations with us. We’d love to read and feature them. And we’d appreciate a like if you enjoyed the read.
For Peru’s Ojo Público, Ernesto Cabral and Uri Blau investigate the story of two intermediaries from Israel and Peru who tried to sell 3 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine to the government. Meanwhile in Argentina, Maia Jastreblansky reports on negotiations to purchase the Sinopharm vaccine at a reported cost of $40 ($20 each shot).
While critical details in vaccine contracts have been kept secret, most recently evident in the contract between the European Commission and AstraZeneca, Matt Apuzzo and Selam Gebrekidan summarize for the New York Times what we have learned. Toby McIntosh on Eye on Global Transparency has a closer look at the COVAX Facility and the views of the organizations responsible for procuring vaccines, including GAVI and UNICEF.
Remember the $200m in ventilators the USA donated to other countries? It turns out officials don’t know where many of them are, write Yeganeh Torbati and Lenny Bernstein for the Washington Post, based on findings by the Government Accountability Office.
In Nigeria, an investigation by the MAWA Foundation, with support from the Public-Private Development Center and Dataphyte, finds that N43.5 million (US$110,000) were awarded for a COVID-19 testing center to a company that does not exist.
In Switzerland, the Swiss army’s pharmacy purchased 700,000 faulty masks from a company that used to sell cosmetics, writes Andreas Schmid for NZZ am Sonntag. The two entrepreneurs behind the company purchased two Bentleys and a Ferrari after the deal.
In Canada, via a request for proposals to seven companies deemed able to deliver the platform, Deloitte won the bid for the national vaccine management system worth CAD16m, reports Colin Ellis for Canadian Accountant. The solution offered will be based on the same product purchased for $44m by the CDC in the USA that has been plagued by problems and abandoned by most states, Cat Ferguson writes for Technology Review.
El País Daniele Grasso and Fernando Peinado analyze Madrid’s regional government’s emergency procurement, finding that 4,200 contracts at a value of €816m were awarded without competition, nearly 5% of the annual budget. The data the analysis is based on can be downloaded here.
Adriana Homolova shares how OCCRP unmasked emergency procurement in Europe and published 37,000 COVID-19 related tenders. Get ideas for investigations and access the data used by a team of journalists from 36 countries.
Who advises the German government? For WELT AM SONNTAG, Christian Schweppe, Manuel Bewarder, and Anette Dowideit report that in the first 9 months, the government spent €344m on consulting firms. The Ministry of Interior spent the most (€128m), followed by Finance (€72) and Health (about €30m).
All the prime minister’s men: Al Jazeera’s investigative unit finds that a criminal gang is allegedly colluding with Bangladeshi security forces and getting rich on public contracts profiting on links to the prime minister. Watch the investigation here.
“This is a matter of vital public interest and trust. Contracts should be published to allay suspicion that companies are dictating the terms. Only an open and transparent process can assure a fair deal for every country and a life-saving shot in the arm for their citizens.”
Gavin Hayman, Executive Director, Open Contracting Partnership
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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