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As Baroness Harding tells @DawnButlerBrent Test&Trace spends £2.75m a day on private consultants, @allthecitizens reveals Deloitte's won almost £200m worth of UK gov Covid19 contracts so far. Their latest? A £145m bid for “consultancy services” on 28th Jan https://find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/001743-2021
A comprehensive review of all contracts issued since March 2020 show that at least 16 wins totalling £193,411,348 have been awarded to the Anglo-American professional services group since March 2020. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nhs-test-trace-private-sector_uk_5f6099e3c5b68d1b09c77477
The most recent contract comes after Tory peer and Minister of State at Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, Lord Agnew, sent a letter to government claiming civil servants were “infantilised” by an “unacceptable” reliance on private consultancy firms https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/29/whitehall-infantilised-by-reliance-on-consultants-minister-claims
Deloitte donated £496,971 to the Conservative party between 2004 and 2010, including £27,978 to MP Chris Grayling, and work “at an estimated value of £60,000” to George Osborne.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/110110/osborne_george.htm
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/110110/osborne_george.htm
A number of Tory MPs past and present have also worked for the consultancy. Tory MP Chloe Smith, Parliamentary Secretary in 2012, worked there, as did MP Alok Sharma and former MP Dave Hartnett.
It must be noted that Deloitte’s donations to political parties extend across the political sphere of influence - they donated £20k to the Liberal Democrats in 2014, and £179,265 to the Labour party in 2014 and 2010.
Of public interest, though, is that Deloitte won more contracts during the pandemic than any other consultancy, almost 10x the amount than the 2nd largest consultancy firm, Boston Consulting Group, for whom @allthecitizens found 8 contracts worth £23.5m. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/14/consultants-fees-up-to-6250-a-day-for-work-on-covid-test-system
Test and Trace reportedly spends £2.75m every day on consultants, according to reporting by the Byline Times today. Health Minister Helen Whately revealed 2,300 consultants work for the scheme from 73 companies. https://twitter.com/WritesBright/status/1356924451254861824
Deloitte was at the centre of Dominic Cummings’ “Operation Moonshot”, a criticised government scheme to increase rapid testing using £1bn of public money, with tests that proved to only catch 50% of positive Covid cases. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/deloitte-gets-another-huge-covid-contract-for-crazy-plan-to-test-millions-each-day/
Other contracts awarded so far include: £22,309,417 from the Department of Health and Social Care, for “provision of support to expand testing for Covid-19”
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/019b32be-6c44-4e86-8241-ffb2680a2e4d?origin=SearchResults&p=1
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/019b32be-6c44-4e86-8241-ffb2680a2e4d?origin=SearchResults&p=1
Two contracts for £5.5m and £2.2m from Health Family for “procurement consultancy services” to “buy support for ventilators” and support a delivery program for procurement of PPE. https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/07cb7e71-51c2-4401-b3dc-fad23d6938ac
£4.8m from NHS Improvements for “external consultancy support” for Covid-19. https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f42add3d-ca60-4eff-a5ce-8fe7b3c66ae1?origin=SearchResults&p=3
Two contracts from NHS England for £428,000 and £40,000 “sourcing support for the nightingale programme” and “accounting, auditing and fiscal services” https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/e2cd6310-30a7-4986-a754-c10f47d0386e?origin=SearchResults&p=8
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/7deaf82b-54c2-4209-9a5d-6b6b558a9070?origin=SearchResults&p=15
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/7deaf82b-54c2-4209-9a5d-6b6b558a9070?origin=SearchResults&p=15
Two contracts, both for £3m, were for “provision of consultancy services for monitoring and analysis” from the Cabinet Office. They were described as “£3m urgent Covid 19 consultancy” contracts and were both heavily redacted. https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/409a52fd-e3bf-4a9e-ad79-6281889f457e?origin=SearchResults&p=1
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/85b0b7f1-ca48-4eed-8c9b-26cbee168d75?origin=SearchResults&p=3
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/85b0b7f1-ca48-4eed-8c9b-26cbee168d75?origin=SearchResults&p=3
They were also 1 of 4 companies awarded a group contract in 2020 for £5m for “consultancy expertise support” from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/2335f859-c9a3-4788-b40f-d948f45803bd?origin=SearchResults&p=1
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/2335f859-c9a3-4788-b40f-d948f45803bd?origin=SearchResults&p=1
The company has, so far in 2021, won 4 contracts: one for £145m, two from the Department of Health and Social Care (for £23,900 and £643,000) in highly redacted contracts, and one for £915,675 for NHS Test and Trace:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/06fe3a2d-a5f1-4fe8-a2dc-db10c900ddc7?origin=SearchResults&p=1
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/7fa71992-efce-4a75-804e-2050753960b1?origin=SearchResults&p=1
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/06fe3a2d-a5f1-4fe8-a2dc-db10c900ddc7?origin=SearchResults&p=1
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/7fa71992-efce-4a75-804e-2050753960b1?origin=SearchResults&p=1
Sky News reported in Oct that 1,000+ consultants from Deloitte working on Test & Trace, were each paid up to £2,360 per day. One individual was paid up to £9,000 a day according to the Byline Times.
https://bylinetimes.com/2021/01/18/no-profiteering-but-government-paying-1000-a-day-for-test-and-trace-consultants/ https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-more-than-1-000-consultants-from-deloitte-on-test-and-trace-programme-12099127
https://bylinetimes.com/2021/01/18/no-profiteering-but-government-paying-1000-a-day-for-test-and-trace-consultants/ https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-more-than-1-000-consultants-from-deloitte-on-test-and-trace-programme-12099127
In Sept last year, Deloitte was fined £15m over its audits on software company Autonomy, with the Financial Reporting Council saying that Deloitte had failed to “act with integrity and objectivity” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/17/deloitte-fined-record-15m-for-failings-in-autonomy-audits
Deloitte won contracts from at least 10 different departments in government so far. The company defended their latest win, saying: “our people were able to contribute their expertise in digital technology, procurement, supply chain, logistics, real estate and project management.”
There’s no indication that Deloitte or its associates or partners have acted illegally, but the number of contracts won by the consultancy, when placed against the donations given by the company to political parties, raises questions as to whether donations help secure access.
