Reform responds to Public Accounts Committee PPE report
Responding to a Public Accounts Committee report criticising government PPE procurement, Aidan Shilson-Thomas, Reform procurement lead, said: “Public-private partnerships have been indispensable during the pandemic, but the PPE debacle has exposed worrying weaknesses in government’s crisis readiness.
“While a pandemic was the top known risk, government scrambled to get what it needed at the last minute, and hadn't developed a smart system for rapidly processing industry offers of help.
“Emergency conditions demand urgent action, but multiple PPE supplier scandals have revealed poor scrutiny of contracts, and the lack of transparency reinforces the perception of dodgy deals. Crisis or not, the taxpayer deserves better than that.”