{"id":2355,"date":"2022-09-26T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/the-citizens.com\/?p=2355"},"modified":"2023-12-19T16:57:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T16:57:56","slug":"covid-contract-winning-firm-owned-by-tory-donor-sees-major-financial-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-citizens.com\/2022\/09\/covid-contract-winning-firm-owned-by-tory-donor-sees-major-financial-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid contract-winning firm owned by Tory donor sees major financial boost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Conservative-linked firm commissioned by the Government to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic has seen a healthy growth in its financial position, Byline Times<\/em> and the Citizens can reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stroud-based P14 Medical (trading as Platform 14), last week finally filed its company accounts, after extending the previous accounting period from December 2020 to 30 June 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is run by former Conservative councillor Steve Dechan, who resigned his position<\/a> after the contracts were revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Dechan said that \u201cit\u2019s a ridiculous thing to say\u201d that P14 benefitted because of its political connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dechan\u2019s firm was awarded more than \u00a3276 million of taxpayers\u2019 money across three contracts, issued without tender, between April and early June 2020 for the supply of medical gowns and face masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, before the chaos of the pandemic, P14 posted a loss of \u00a3485,886. Following the award of the contracts to the company, however, Dechan said<\/a> that he had since taken a salary of \u201croundabout \u00a3400,000\u201d, adding that his wife had also \u201ctaken about \u00a3150,000\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasoning behind such a large salary, he said, was that it was \u201cback pay\u201d, following several years in which the company struggled financially. P14 has now posted an updated figure of \u00a3655,753 on its balance sheet, which logs the company\u2019s assets, an increase of \u00a31.1 million from the previous accounting period. The overall profit and loss of the firm over the accounting period is not declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the most recent filings reveal, the Dechans also operate other companies within the field, two of which have seen financial boosts over the same period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new P14 accounts show that the parent company, Pain Medical<\/a>, also under the significant control of Steve and Kate Dechan, has, between December 2019 and June 2021, seen its financial position swell from \u00a3100 in assets to more than \u00a39.9 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pain Medical accounts in turn list another entity as a \u2018connected company\u2019, Tracingboard Limited, which filed for the same accounting period on the same day as both P14 and Pain Medical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracingboard<\/a>, which was only incorporated in April 2020 and is registered to the same address as Pain, retains a net book value of \u00a35.1 million, including a freehold property the company uses to conduct business, as well as a profit and loss account of \u00a32.1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three companies controlled by the Dechans, therefore, have seen a total asset growth of \u00a313.3 million, not including value held in property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

P14 Medical and Steve Dechan did not respond to our requests for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

‘Chuffed to bits’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the height of the pandemic, the Dechans purchased a \u00a31.5 million, 17th Century, grade II listed mansion in the Cotswolds. \u201cWe\u2019re chuffed to bits\u201d he said, speaking at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the BBC about the work of his firm, Dechan said that: \u201cWe are an expert company that has been in medical supplies for eight years including PPE that has managed to deliver on a big contract that the \u2018big companies\u2019 could not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI only know a couple MPs through local campaigning on issues, only met ministers (no current ones) on [general election] campaign trails. Never discussed PPE.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An investigation by the Good Law Project<\/a> alleged that P14 had received its contract via the \u2018VIP\u2019 lane, set up in the Cabinet Office to fast-track recommendations of eligible firms from the offices of Government ministers and civil servants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A list of the companies later published by the Government<\/a>, indicated that the referral had come from<\/a> Dr Ian Campbell from the UK\u2019s research and development initiative Innovate UK, via Richard James of the Cabinet Office. Dechan had previously denied that P14 was part of the VIP lane process, and provided corroborating evidence to The Times<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also of note is the fact that after the contracts were awarded to P14 \u2013 in October 2020 \u2013 Dechan donated \u00a37,500<\/a> to the local Stroud branch of the Conservative Party. This is the only time that he has, at present, donated to the Conservatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

P14 was listed by the National Audit Office as being the seventh largest supplier of PPE between March and July 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, Byline Times<\/em> and The Citizens<\/em> established that an eye-watering total of at least \u00a33 billion had been awarded to firms with links to either Conservative donors<\/a> or those connected via other means<\/a> to the Conservative Government during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of the Dechans or the companies involved in this process; it was the Government that suspended normal procurement practices, introduced the VIP lane, and issued the contracts to companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Conservative-linked firm commissioned by the Government to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic has seen a healthy growth in its financial position, Byline Times and the Citizens can reveal. Stroud-based P14 Medical (trading as Platform 14), last week finally filed its company accounts, after extending the previous accounting period from December 2020 to 30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[70,10],"ctzn_campaign_type":[],"ctzn_theme":[189],"ctzn_investigation_type":[99],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCovid contract-winning firm owned by Tory donor sees major financial boost - The Citizens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/the-citizens.com\/2022\/09\/covid-contract-winning-firm-owned-by-tory-donor-sees-major-financial-boost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covid contract-winning firm owned by Tory donor sees major financial boost - The Citizens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Conservative-linked firm commissioned by the Government to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic has seen a healthy growth in its financial position, Byline Times and the Citizens can reveal. 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