UK PM caught lying about publishing COVID contracts!
According to the BBC today, March 5, 2021, campaigners say dozens of COVID contracts had not been published when Mr Johnson told MPs they were "on the record for everyone to see".
The Good Law Project said the PM's assurance last month was "not true" because government lawyers had said 100 contracts were yet to be revealed.
The group successfully sued the government over its failure to reveal details about COVID deals last month.
Ministers said remaining contracts would be published as soon as possible, the BBC reported.
Cronyism
The UK Government has faced repeated claims of cronyism over its £18billion rush to source PPE and other equipment during the COVID-19 crisis, with ministers criticised for handing lucrative contracts to personal contacts with no experience in the sector.
The Good Law Project took legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for its 'wholesale failure' to disclose details of contracts agreed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UK Government is required by law to publish a 'contract award notice' within 30 days of the award of any contracts for public goods or services worth more than £120,000.
In the High Court in February, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the public were entitled to see who the money was going to, what it was being spent on and how the relevant contracts were awarded.
He ruled that Health Secretary Matthew J. D. Hancock aka ‘Matt’ acted unlawfully when his department failed to publish award notices for contracts it had agreed during the COVID-19 pandemic within 30 days of them being signed.
UK Gov’t breached its own rules!
Further, the judge also found that the UK Government was breaching its own transparency policy, which requires the publication of details of public contracts worth more than £10,000.
In a ruling on Friday, February 19, 2021, Mr Justice Chamberlain said: 'There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the Secretary of State breached his legal obligation to publish contract award notices within 30 days of the award of contracts.
'There is also no dispute that the Secretary of State failed to publish redacted contracts in accordance with the transparency policy.'
PM Johnson misleads UK Parliament
Challenged about the ruling in the House of Commons on February 22, 2021, Mr Johnson said: "All the details are on the record."
The prime minister added: "The contracts are there on the record for everybody to see."
The BBC reported that three days later, in a written legal response to the Good Law Project, seen by the BBC, government lawyers admitted 100 contracts for suppliers and services relating to Covid-19 signed before 7 October had yet to be published.
“The court had asked the government to declare the number of contracts which had been published late.
“Government lawyers also confirmed that 482 out of 513 contract award notices - 94% of them - had been published outside the 30 days required by law,” the BBC stated.
UK Gov’t ‘contemptuous of transparency & allergic to accountability’
Gemma Abbott, the Good Law Project's legal director said: "We have a government contemptuous of transparency and apparently allergic to accountability."
Rachel Reeves MP, Labour's shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, responding to reports that dozens of Covid contracts were yet to be published, said, according to the BBC: "It is deeply concerning how much the government has relied on crony contracts throughout the pandemic, while leaving our frontline workers exposed.
"First the government acted unlawfully, then the prime minister falsely claimed everything had been published.
"It is a basic right for the public to know where and how our cash is being spent. The government needs to come out of hiding, simply publish the contracts it has sitting around and support our frontline staff with PPE not pay cuts,” Reeves said.
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33 Responses to “UK PM caught lying about publishing COVID contracts!”
This is exactly the ammunition they to say, we deal with our corruption.
Try do us a favor and go &%$# off
Hope racist BVI N**** post this and get good responses from there flock of sheep ....in house slave...
The UK has demonstrated integrity in their efforts to root out corruption and other wrong doings.
Our Gov should follow their lead. Considering that our elected are religiously in and under the Church and with an unelected holy mouthpiece,why is this not being g done willingly and effortlessly?
They made this mess after all.
By VINOs report's logic, because i set my father as my moral compass it should be ok for me to slap my wife because my daddy use to slap my mother. and if you see me doing it please excuse me, daddy does it so don't judge me.