The UK government acted 'fast and loose' in awarding almost £777m in Covid-testing contracts to County Antrim firm Randox, an MP has said.
Among a number of criticisms, the PAC's report said that England's Department of Health and Social Care "did not deal with potential conflicts of interest, despite clear concerns about Randox's political connections".
The report said that DHSC failed to be transparent about meetings between its ministers and Randox and that "basic civil service practices to document contract decision making were not followed". "Yet the department still awarded Randox a contract extension worth £328m seven months later, again without competition."Randox made aIn a statement accompanying the PAC report, Ms Hillier said despite the pandemic "acting fast doesn't mean acting fast and loose".
But in a statement, Randox called the PAC report "deeply flawed" and said the committee had not contacted them when preparing the report. "It provided the Department of Health and Social Care with a PCR testing capacity at the time of greatest need, rising from 300 tests per day to 120,000 per day by January 2021.""At no stage, either during its deliberations or in its preparation of this report, did the PAC make any contact whatsoever with Randox." their statement continued.
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