\n\t Nine companies included in the government\u2019s expedited \u2018VIP\u2019 lane for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Coronavirus pandemic have increased their profits twelve-fold \u2013 from \u00a38.5 million to \u00a3109 million, the Byline Intelligence Team and The Citizens can reveal.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under legal pressure, the government last week released the 50 firms that won contracts through a special procurement process during the early stages of the crisis. The companies featured in the VIP lane were 10 times more likely to win a government contract than other firms, the National Audit Office (NAO) found<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MPs, ministers and officials could refer companies to the VIP lane under the assumption that these public servants had undertaken some vetting of the firms in question, or at least were willing to vouch for their reliability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In total, some 500 firms were referred to the VIP lane, and one-tenth of these companies won contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The evidence suggests that the VIP lane was used internally by the government to sort and prioritise potential suppliers, and many of the companies were unaware that they were being processed through an expedited route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the government has been criticised for using a procurement process that leaned towards firms with connections to public and political figures \u2013 especially given that a significant proportion of the contracts, in particular during the early stages of the pandemic, were awarded without a normal, competitive bidding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more, it appears as though the firms included in the VIP lane have benefitted heavily from their inclusion. Our calculations show that 13 firms have so far filed their accounts for the period in question and that nine of them explicitly mention changes in their post-tax profits \u2013 which have increased by more than \u00a3100 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of the companies and individuals involved. Indeed, the pandemic procurement system was created and operated by the government. But there is a public interest in providing information to taxpayers about where their money has been spent during the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is acknowledged that multiple sources of income, not solely government contracts, will have contributed to the balance sheets of each of the companies. They have all been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the accounts of the companies show that they markedly increased their profits during the period in which they won COVID-19 contracts from the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Increases<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two of the firms to have seen the largest increases in profits are Meller Designs and Ayanda Capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ayanda Capital controversially won a \u00a3250 million PPE contract brokered by Andrew Mills, who was at the time an advisor to the government\u2019s Board of Trade. The company saw its profits increase by 2,600% during the latest accounting period, up from \u00a3633,000 to \u00a317.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meller Designs, meanwhile, saw gains of more than 9,000%. The firm\u2019s profits rose from \u00a3143,000 to \u00a313.2 million during the accounting period ending December 2020. The firm won contracts worth at least \u00a3163 million during the pandemic. \u201cTurnover increased to \u00a3170 million (2019: \u00a312.8 million) reflecting the additional PPE business in the year,\u201d the company\u2019s accounts state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Meller Designs spokesperson previously told The Times<\/em><\/a>: \u201cWe are extremely proud of the role we played at the height of the crisis and managed to secure more than 150 million items of PPE.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The co-owner of the firm, David Meller, is a Conservative Party donor \u2013 having donated nearly \u00a360,000 to Conservative politicians and the central party since 2009, including \u00a33,250 to Michael Gove\u2019s unsuccessful leadership campaign in 2016. The Guardian<\/em> has reported<\/a> that Meller agreed to serve as the finance chair of Gove\u2019s short-lived party leadership bid \u2013 and it was Gove\u2019s office that referred Meller Designs<\/a> to the VIP lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angela Rayner, Labour\u2019s Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told Byline Times<\/em>: \u201cMinisters must publish all correspondence and all documents, meeting minutes and notes related to each of the contracts awarded through the VIP lane and fast-track process for friends of prominent Conservative politicians. If they refuse to do so then the Cabinet Secretary needs to step in and publish these documents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Care home provider Blueleaf also saw a significant jump in profits in its latest accounts. The firm lost \u00a3883,000 in the previous year, only to see its intake increase to \u00a317.4 million during the period to December 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar gains were seen by Monarch Acoustics \u2013 a firm that typically specialises<\/a> in education furniture such as desks and storage units. In the year to December 2020, the company logged profits of \u00a310.9 million, having achieved just \u00a3244,000 the year before. Government records show that<\/a> the firm was referred to the VIP lane by former Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A further four companies have filed their accounts but have not logged profits during the period. The assets of three increased \u2013 in one case from just \u00a3322 to \u00a3155,000, and from \u00a31 million to \u00a35.8 million in another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NAO \u2013 the independent government spending watchdog \u2013 previously noted how the VIP lane process wasn\u2019t always seamless. \u201cThe sources of the referrals to the high-priority lane were not always recorded on the team\u2019s case management system and we found a case where a supplier was added to the high-priority lane in error,\u201d it noted<\/a> last November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Byline Times<\/em> and The Citizens have previously revealed<\/a> an increase in profits of \u00a3121.7 million (57.1%) among 12 of the 30 Conservative-linked companies awarded contracts during the pandemic. Tussell estimates<\/a> that \u00a343.3 billion has been spent by the Government on COVID-related contracts so far, including \u00a314.6 billion on PPE. For context, the UK\u2019s annual defence spending is roughly \u00a340 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Under legal pressure, the government last week released the 50 firms that won contracts through a special procurement process during the early stages of the crisis. The companies featured in the VIP lane were 10 times more likely to win a government contract than other firms, the National Audit Office (NAO) found. MPs, ministers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[70,35,10],"ctzn_campaign_type":[],"ctzn_theme":[189],"ctzn_investigation_type":[99],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\n\n\n