Contracts, Data and Investigations – COVID-19: Edition 2020-07-24
This week’s content: Italy’s COVID-19 contracts, tracking local emergency procurement in Romania, Colombia’s ventilators, and three steps to make millions.
This newsletter gathers stories covering the use and abuse of government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Like the newsletter and share with your colleagues, if you enjoy it. Let us know about your stories and content. We, Sophie and Georg, would love to hear about them.
Civil society organization openpolis has gathered over €4bn of Italy’s COVID-19 emergency contracts on the new platform BandiCovid. The information is updated weekly and available as open data. More about the project and the coverage in the FAQ.
Most countries have managed to purchase at least some of the ventilators needed to support COVID-19 patients. Jineth Prieto at La Silla Vaía tracks in detail Colombia’s US$120 million spent on ventilators, finding that most cost less than the regional average even though the process was slow.
Romania’s local news site Buletin de Bucureșt tracks local emergency procurement, including a series of three in-depth articles by Bianca Albu on purchases made by the Bucharest police force. Check out Tara Kelly’s feature on the Buletin on EJC’s Medium page.
As Europe agreed on a €750bn rescue package this week, worries surface over weak oversight mechanisms on how that money is spent, writes ARD’s Helga Schmidt from Brussels. Case in point is Hungary, where Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF found serious irregularities and conflicts of interest in public contracts awarded with EU funds in the past that were never prosecuted.
At Devex, Janadale Leene Coralde and Miguel Antonio Tamonan keep an eye on how the UN’s response materializes in its procurement. We featured their analysis of the MDBs last week. At the same time, aid from major government donors of humanitarian assistance has dropped by 30%, writes Cara Anna at the AP reporting on a new report by Development Initiatives.
Looking to get rich quickly? ProPublica’s David McSwane shares three easy steps for making millions by selling masks to the US government. USA Today’s Josh Salman, Nick Penzenstadler, and Dak Le investigate the middlemen making the money. Meanwhile, a $21 million emergency contract for a trial of the possible, but unlikely and risky virus remedy Pepcid, a heartburn medication, is under scrutiny, report AP’s Richard Lardner and Jason Dearen.
Nelson Rauda y Jimmy Alvarado investigated the faulty masks delivered to the Health Ministry by the family business of a congressman in El Salvador.
Some countries are starting to move from the frantic, ‘Wild West’ purchasing model to long-term planning, as CBC’s Mia Rabson writes of Canada. However, there is little willingness to disclose its international suppliers of protective equipment.
A new report by South African NGO Corruption Watch, X-Ray: The critical state of the health sector, finds that kick-backs for public contracts and other forms of corruption in procurement are the second largest area of corruption, aggravated by the emergency.
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As corrupt networks infiltrate public procurement in the emergency, uncovering them can be risky. We join the call to release Zimbabwean investigative journalists Hopewell Chin’ono and ensure freedom of reporting for journalists globally. Hopewell has investigated alleged corruption, including allegations involving US$60 million worth of contracts awarded to companies at inflated prices for COVID-19 supplies by the Ministry of Health.
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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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