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    Healthcare firm advised by Owen Paterson won £133m coronavirus testing contract unopposed Archived Message

    Posted by Sinister Burt on May 11, 2020, 1:44 pm

    Usual british corruption, now in covid19 flavour.

    https://www.dumptheguardian.com/world/2020/may/11/healthcare-firm-advised-by-owen-paterson-won-133m-coronavirus-testing-contract-unopposed

    "A healthcare firm which employs the prominent Conservative politician Owen Paterson as a paid consultant has been awarded a £133m contract without any other firms being given the opportunity to bid for the work.

    The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has given Randox the contract to produce testing kits to help respond to the coronavirus pandemic. It was awarded “without prior publication of a call for competition”, according to details of the contract seen by the Guardian.

    The founder of Randox Laboratories is Peter FitzGerald, a polo-playing multimillionaire Northern Irish doctor who is the UK’s 475th richest person with a £255m personal fortune, according to the Sunday Times rich list.

    Matt Hancock’s department awarded the contract last month under fast-track arrangements that enable public bodies dealing with the pandemic to give contracts to commercial companies quickly without the need to ask other firms to bid for them.

    The firm has employed Owen Paterson, a former Conservative cabinet minister and leading Brexit supporter, as a consultant since 2015. He is currently paid £100,000 a year at the rate of £500 an hour.

    Under its contract, Randox has been paid to carry out tests, both posted to individuals at home and administered at testing centres, as part of Hancock’s pledge to reach the target of 100,000 tests a day.

    According to the official notice of the contract, the department said there was no other way of obtaining the testing kits and the associated services that were needed urgently.

    Randox said last month that it was recruiting 160 mechanical, electrical and manufacturing engineers to start work on developing ways of detecting whether people have been infected.

    A government source said the DHSC was “unable to comment on the personnel matters of other organisations” when asked if Paterson had lobbied on Randox’s behalf.

    Randox did not respond to questions about whether Paterson was involved in securing the deal. The Guardian did not receive a response when it asked Paterson to comment."

    Ctd.

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