The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has said that ministers and government officials played “fast and loose” when awarding £777m in Covid contracts to a healthcare firm that employed the Conservative MP Owen Paterson as a lobbyist.
In a damning report, the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) concluded that the government made a series of failures, making it impossible to know if the contracts had been awarded properly to Randox.
The report noted that the Department of Health and Social Care did little to deal with potential conflicts of interests despite “clear concerns” about Randox’s political connections. It added that officials were aware Paterson had been in direct contact with Matt Hancock, who was then the health secretary, while promoting Randox. The MPs found that Randox made “substantial” profits after it was given the contracts to carry out Covid testing during the pandemic.
Full story in The Guardian, 27 July 2022
