Read on Twitter
Some more on the curious case of Crisp Websites Limited (aka "Pestfix"): the company with reported net assets of £18,047 that got a £108m Government contract. THREAD https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1272478319494168576
First, the Government says it put out a press release on 10 April 2020 and received 16,000 offers...
but we think that raises more questions than it answers. The Official Journal says that the Government raised a purchase order on 10 April. So how did it assess the other 15,999 offers - and did it decide to contract with Pestfix even before issuing the press release?
(You can see the Official Journal record entry for the £108m Crisp Websites Limited contract, from which the picture was taken, here: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:230683-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML.)
Second, Government's position seems to be that it was fine to award Crisp Websites Limited a £108m contract to supply PPE even though it had not before the award of the contract sourced or supplied PPE.
We do think that is an odd stance to take.
We do think that is an odd stance to take.
Third, Government says "there cannot be any secrecy surrounding the conclusion of the contract". And *the fact of* the award of the contract was, indeed, published in the Official Journal (see above) - albeit a number of days later than the law requires.
But that's not an answer to the point we make that the *contract itself* was not published within 20 days of being concluded (or indeed, so far as we are aware, at all) as the "Central Government transparency Guidance Note" requires ( https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/666728/Guidance_Publication_of_New_Central_Government_Tender_documents__and_Contracts_2017__1___1_.pdf).
Why not?
Why not?
This points are, of course, *additional to* those in the thread quote tweeted at the top of this thread.
There is more to come... Two sets of people have offered to give us further contractual materials which we hope to publish when we get them.
There is more to come... Two sets of people have offered to give us further contractual materials which we hope to publish when we get them.
Meanwhile, please, please, please - there is a lot on the line here. Cummings famously hates procurement rules and so his Government will fight this tooth and nail. If you want to get to the bottom of this we will need your help to tool up: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/108million/
