Contracts, Data and Investigations – Edition 2021-08-06
This week: COVID-19 contracting pearls in Colombia, Brazil’s messy vaccination business, a rigged tender in South Africa, and business in the shadows of the Olympics in Guatemala
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 love a like if you enjoyed the read.
Colombia’s La Silla Vacia has some COVID-19 contracting “pearls” for you: In their investigation of a special pandemic fund, Jineth Prieto and Juan Esteban Lewin find that $200 billion of COP$1.2 trillion spent on protective equipment and medical materials remains unaccounted for. A liquor company also won a contract for ventilators that ended up being defective and a gunpowder company secured a mask contract that equaled almost 80 percent of the firm’s revenue in 2020. Check the spreadsheet of all 127 contracts here.
In South Africa, an allegedly rigged tender led to a R150-million communications contract at the health ministry. A more experienced bidder lost out despite making an offer well under half the price at R69 million. The health minister and his family allegedly profited too, writes Pieter-Louis Myburgh for the Daily Maverick’s investigative unit Scorpio.
Brazil's messy vaccination business continues. The ministry of health paid 20% more for its vaccine than state governments, according to an investigation by Guilherme Mazieiro, Rafael Moro Martins, and Tatiana Dias for the Intercept. The R$694 million deal for more than 10 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V was negotiated through an intermediary. Other intermediaries have tried to sell doses of Covaxin and AstraZeneca but these deals fell through. Read more about the intermediary behind the Sputnik deal in Abraji’s newsletter CruzaGrafos.
In France, a former minister pocketed €100,000 after using his connections to secure mask contracts for an import business, according to an investigation by Mediapart’s Antton Rouget.
“URGENT: Alex pls sign off immediately budget so Paul S can get out our large scale polls into field TODAY. Anybody in CABOFF whines tell them I ordered it from PM [OFFICIAL].” In the UK, more evidence is coming to light of just how great the political pressure was to push emergency deals without any oversight. This time to secure a £589,000 deal for public polling, reports The Guardian’s David Conn.
Meanwhile, the UK has renewed its deal for COVID-19 monitoring and distribution services with Palantir for the second time. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that the controversial tech firm secured the initial deal at £1 under emergency regulations, before expanding into a longer-term £23.5 million agreement.
As Guatemala’s athletes compete in the Olympics, some businesses in sports aren’t playing by the rules, reveals Ojo Con Mi Pisto’s Isaias Morales. Sports managers and administrators sell services to the government. It’s prohibited by law, but no one’s calling foul.
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 you’ve written to share? Write to Georg at gneumann@open-contracting.org. Thanks for reading.
Did a friend forward you this email? Click here to subscribe