Contracts, Data and Investigations – COVID-19: Edition 2020-09-04
This week’s content: $13 trillion spent globally on public procurement, Africa responds, contracts with government links under scrutiny in Australia, UK and USA
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.
We don’t need to tell you how hard it can be to get information on public procurement. Governments around the world spend an estimated $13 trillion a year on contracts for goods, services and works, according to a new report we published this week together with Spend Network, but less than 3% is published openly, with key information such as the contract’s value and duration. Opaque contracts shut out businesses, journalists and civil society from analyzing and interrogating the data, the kind of investigations we feature in this newsletter.
The report’s source data is available in this spreadsheet. It contains an estimate for every country in the world on total procurement spending and procurement spending as a % of GDP.
The Guardian’s Rob Davies reports on the findings along with concerns over the UK’s COVID-19 related spending, valued at £2.5 billion.
Fraud and corruption are in the spotlight in Africa this week. “Theft doesn’t even stop during a pandemic,” a Kenyan anti-corruption campaigner tells the Financial Times in a piece by Andres Schipani, Joseph Cotterill and Neil Munshi that sums up some of the problems in the region. In fact, it’s gone virtual: in a leaked recording of a Zoom call, the Ugandan ambassador in Denmark is apparently caught plotting to misappropriate money destined for COVID-19 response, writes ChimpReports. Kenya’s president Kenyatta has ordered the health ministry to make detailed procurement data available on an online portal within 30 days. South Africa’s Treasury has vowed to publish a report on COVID-19 related procurement by the end of September.
Graphic via Bloomberg by EXX Africa.
Contracts won by companies with links to government officials are increasingly under scrutiny. In the USA, the Department of Health and Human Services canceled a contract for new ventilators that had been orchestrated with the help of a White House trade advisor, write David Lynch, Carol Leonnig, Jeff Stein and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post. While not directly related to Coronavirus procurement, a UK minister has given up control of shares in a firm that did extensive work for the government, the Guardian’s Rob Evans, Nimra Shahid and David Conn report. In Australia, a company run by the prime minister’s mentor has received millions in government contracts, reveals Margaret Simons.
Indonesia’s Health Ministry carried out 430 procurement processes related to COVID-19 worth US$56.9 million, according to research by Indonesia Corruption Watch published by the Jakarta Post’s Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie. Some 74 were direct awards and information is available for only 18 processes.
In an analysis of COVID-19 contracts in the Philippines, the Inquirer’s Ben O. de Vera finds that three debarred companies won contracts worth $15 million.
A new investigation by Kloop’s Ekaterina Reznikova into Kyrgyz oil contracts reveals the son of a high-level politician became one of the main suppliers of fuel, winning 3,900 contracts valued at US$12 million over five years.
Governments spent eye-watering sums of money without proper checks and balances, leading to unnecessary waste and unforgivable loss of life. PPE and medical supplies are just the tip of the iceberg. With governments relying on public procurement systems to boost their economic recovery efforts, we need transparency to ensure public money is well spent, whether on school meals, medicine, or vital infrastructure.
Gavin Hayman, Executive Director, Open Contracting Partnership
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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