Contracts, Data and Investigations: COVID-19 – Edition 2020-05-22
Private data firms in the COVID-19 response, more red flags, a look at the vaccine business, purchases trickling in, and one year Ibiza Affair
This newsletter gathers stories covering the use and abuse of government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Make sure to subscribe and share your stories. We, Hera, Sophie and Georg, would love to hear about them.
Governments are hiring private firms to develop public software tools to tackle COVID-19, raising questions about privacy management and open-sourcing of the code. In the UK, the Telegraph’s Margi Murphy tracks how “CIA-backed” data firm Palantir has embedded itself into the NHS digital response. In the US, FedScoop’s Dave Nyczepir writes about Palantir’s contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Taylor Hatmaker at Techcrunch examines software resellers to reveal suppliers’ connections and interests. Palantir now does business with at least 12 governments, writes Thomas Brewster in Forbes. Germany has released its app architecture on Github, a transparent practice that may provide a blueprint for future government tech projects.
Red flags have been raised in contracts in Latin America. In Colombia, Semana’s Ariel Ávila identified irregularities in 313 public contracts and classified them into six categories: overpriced food purchases, providers with no prior experience, contracts with campaign donors and family, unjustified non-emergency contracts, lack of transparency, and others. In Argentina, one of the largest deals was a $6 million contract for school books for distance learning, Ivan Ruíz and Bianca Pallaro at La Nación report, and the local Transparency International chapter Poder Ciudadano has pulled together a database of coronavirus-related contracts totaling nearly ARS 1.5 billion ($22 million).
Vaccines and drugs are big business. Reporters at Investigate Europe follow the public money funding the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine and find most deals lack the conditions to ensure global supply and fair access. The US federal government gave $354 million in funding to national generic drugmakers to reduce reliance on international suppliers, write The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Hopkins and Rebecca Ballhaus. And while it’s still not quite clear which medicines will be effective, the UK has spent £20 million buying up stocks of HIV and malaria drugs, reports The Guardian’s Lisa O’Carroll.
Masks are slowly reaching frontline workers, but some face delays, report Daniel Gilbert and Mike Reicher of the Seattle Times, and others turn out to be counterfeit, AP’s Juliet Linderman and Martha Mendoza reveal – keep an eye on those ear loops. CIPER’s Ivonne Toro Agurto provides insights into the black market and coffers of cash it took to secure ventilators for Chile.
African nations are joining forces to build a digital platform for medical procurement under the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, a specialized agency of the African Union, as they’ve been shut out of the market, reports Neil Munshi for the Financial Times. As April Zhu writes for The New Humanitarian, African countries have struggled to find enough test kits.
In Europe, Elena Sevillano of El País explores how regions in Spain can top up their stocks in a market plagued by bidding wars and scammers. While in Italy, the head of the coronavirus response in Sicily and nine other officials have been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes worth $2 million since 2016, writes the BBC. La Stampa has more details.
A festival of irregularities. This round-up by Folha de Sao Paolo’s Patricia Campos Mello sums up the issues in purchasing medical equipment.
Finally, a look at international funding for the response. A database of investments by development banks has been built by The Accountability Project, while Devex continues to track who’s funding the response.
One year ago, the Ibiza-Affair, a scandal involving a proposed trade of campaign support for contracts, toppled Austria’s government and forced new elections. Oliver Das Gupta, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer at the Süddeutsche Zeitung look back at what has changed.
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 Hera, Sophie or Georg at media@open-contracting.org. Thanks for reading.
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