COVID corruption commissioner will not recover taxpayers’ money

Fiona Fernie, Partner said:

It is unclear why Rachel Reeves thinks that 4 years after the events occurred the COVID corruption commissioner appointment will achieve something that the National Audit Office investigation into government procurement which took place in November 2020 or the Boardman Review of Government procurement in 2021 has not.

She added:

Tom Hayhoe’s appointment is only for 12 months, which is not long enough for such a complex enquiry, especially one that will be particularly difficult as the questionable occurrences he is looking into took place a number of years ago. That means those acting questionably have had more time to try to cover their tracks.

The proposal for him to submit a report to Rachel Reeves at the end of his contract, including recommendations for Government procurement during future crises sounds sensible, but it is questionable what this will add to previous reports.

The official UK COVID enquiry led by Baroness Heather Hallett and the current National Crime Agency investigation into possible criminal offences committed as part of the PPE procurement activity during COVID have, in theory, already extensively looked into this issue.

Fiona added:

On top of this, despite it being one of Labour’s manifesto pledges, it took them 5 months of being in Government before they made this appointment. Between the proposal and Tom Hayhoe being in the role, statements promising someone would be appointed ‘next week’ or ‘next month’ were made frequently to the media.

I fully support the idea that the Government should investigate fraud and look to recover taxpayer money, but this appointment may easily cost the Exchequer more than it will recover, and is unlikely to bring any new information to light.

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