Contracts, Data and Investigations – COVID-19: Edition 2020-07-31
This week’s content: A $52.5 million secret invoice, UK’s emergency spent, the cost of a hand sanitizer in Nigeria
This newsletter gathers stories covering the use and abuse of government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Let us know about your stories and content. We, Sophie and Georg, would love to hear about them. And if you enjoy it, give the newsletter a heart and share it with your colleagues.
You haven’t seen it all. Vanity Fair’s Katherine Eban discloses the procurement of 3.5 million Chinese-made COVID-19 diagnostic tests via a UAE company for $52.5 million. The tests were unusable, and the purchase never made it into the government’s procurement databases.
The United States Government Accountability Office analyzed the country’s emergency procurement finding that four agencies account for 85% of the $17.8bn in emergency contracts, more than half were awarded without competition.
But access to procurement data is spotty in states and cities. Tom Precious of The Buffalo News provides insights into $2.2bn awarded in contracts during the emergency in New York State. He did not find much detail.
Using Spend Network analysis, Financial Times’ Gill Plimmer reports on UK’s £3.2bn purchases in medical and protective equipment – over €1bn more than Germany. 73% of these contracts went through without any competition, and none of the 137 deals by the Department of Health, Europe’s largest buyer, were competitive.
For Japan Today, Mari Saito and Ju-min Park sum up a 2 trillion yen government aid package for businesses (about $19 billion) and find a web of subcontractors totaling at least 63 companies. Only 14 of them are known so far.
How much have you paid for a bottle of hand sanitizer? Nigeria’s Dataphyte found that the Federal Road Safety Commission spent 15 dollars per 500ml bottle of hand sanitizer as part of a $14,000 contract. In total, Dataphyte identifies that $4.3 million were mismanaged by five agencies.
In South Africa, the term Covidpreneurs is emerging. It’s a play on the colloquialism tenderpreneur, an often well-connected businessperson who secures government contracts to facilitate outsourced services. In good news, South Africa’s province Western Cape published a first Procurement Disclosure Report detailing all PPE procurement and expenditure.
Lorena Rios at Bloomberg profiles Mexico’s Covidpreneurs seeking business opportunities during the crisis, including one who’s been switching from spa manager to selling body bags.
In an investigation by Olesya Shmagun for the OCCRP, an international humanitarian aid NGO based in Geneva served as a vehicle for $140 million in contracts to contractors pre-selected by Russian officials.
Toby McIntosh at the Eye on Global Transparency finds that only 1 in 7 contracts signed by African governments to fight COVID-19 with World Bank funds have been publicly disclosed. The Bank’s website reports only 41 contracts by 26 African countries, of 300 in total. Check the EYE’s spreadsheet on the number of contracts published.
Transparency International has analyzed the anti-corruption measures linked to the International Monetary Fund’s financial assistance and debt relief to over 80 countries and published a public tracker. 56 commitments are on procurement.
“Awarding contracts under the unusual and compelling urgency exception to full and open competition can be necessary in certain circumstances, but (...) promoting competition—even in a limited form – increases the potential for quality goods and services at a lower price in urgent situations.” United States Government Accountability Office
For our recommendations, resources and tools, check our COVID-19 resource page.
This newsletter has been put together by the Open Contracting Partnership. Comments? Suggestions? Got a story to share? Write to Sophie or Georg at media@open-contracting.org. Thanks for reading.
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