Contracts, Data and Investigations – COVID-19: Edition 2020-09-11
This week’s content: Latin America’s rapid COVID-19 tests, fever over thermometer prices in South Africa, political allies secure UK contracts
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.
Chinese companies dominate the market for rapid COVID-19 tests in Latin America followed by US laboratories, finds the latest exposé by the regional data journalism network Red Palta. The investigation led by Ernesto Cabral (Ojo Público, Peru), Claudia Ocaranza (Poder, Mexico), Juliana Galvis (Datasketch, Colombia), Isaias Morales (Ojo Con Mi Pisto, Guatemala), Florencia Rodríguez Altube y Delfina Arambillet (La Nación, Argentina) reveals that 76 Chinese labs sell tests in Latin America and 93% are not certified in their country of origin. Poder and Datasketch also highlight the inequalities in access to healthcare by comparing the price and processing time of tests in the public and private systems. Country specific analysis are available for Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala — the only country with primarily South Korean tests — and Uruguay, where la diaria reflects on how the country has managed to keep the virus at bay.
Public bodies in South African paid as much as US$300 per unit for thermometers, according to an analysis by My Broadband’s Bradley Prior of official records about COVID-19 spending at the national and provincial level.
Friends with benefits. In the UK, The Guardian’s Rob Evans and David Pegg find more contracts given out to allies of political staffers without tender, this time to a lobbying and PR firm.
An investigation by Colombia’s Anti-Corruption Institute using open contracting data finds 30% of firms that supply protective and medical equipment are multipurpose companies, which increases the risk of corruption and quality issues. In some departments, the share is as high as 60%. Published in El Espectador, the study is supported by the Open Contracting Partnership.
The new monitoring platform ComprasCOVID.mx tracks Mexico City’s emergency procurement. A collaboration between Mexico’s Project Poder and Serendipia, the database lists more than 3000 contracts worth over $300 million. Access the platform and download the underlying data.
In Honduras, a company linked to the president won $320,000 in contracts for security services in hospitals during the pandemic, according to an exclusive by Expediente Públic.
“Fraudsters” are using the procurement and tendering process to gain access to EU funds for illegal purposes, warns the European Commission’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in its latest annual report. The document provides some fascinating insights into corruption schemes used to siphon off public money.
Vaccines for the world: An alliance of international organizations and donors is set to procure and supply safe COVID-19 vaccines worldwide as part of the global immunization plan known as COVAX. There is little information on what data will be made public about the procurement processes, agreements with manufacturers, and distribution.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at Ojo Público’s FUNES, the corruption-detecting algorithm that ‘never forgets’, thanks to its ability to recall details from 245,000 public contracts.
“We journalists are used to working on specific contracts. When we do, the only thing that happens is that they remove the corrupt official and thus, the corrupt system continues to operate. So we need to say: let’s not look at one case, let’s not look at 10, let’s put the focus on 200,000 and find the common pattern in all of them. That’s what FUNES does. It allows us to have a holistic view of the system, to fight corruption in public procurement more effectively.”
- Ernesto Cabral, Ojo Público
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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