One of the things that one should be able to take for granted in this country is that corruption is minimal and broadly disapproved of, that there are rules to ensure a level playing field when bidding for contracts. And, to be honest, we've been fortunate in that regard.
Why is it important? Let me offer up an example of what happens when you have a public procurement system that has a known element of corruption. If you know that, by influencing a key official or politician, you increase your chances of bidding successfully, you might be minded to do just that. You'll raise the price if you can to cover the cost of that influencing, thus the public ultimately pay. And then, your competitors will realise that they have to do the same to compete. The premium needed increases, and you suck money out of the legal economy, filtered out into offshore bank accounts and properties.
It doesn't happen overnight, it happens gradually, as the accepted norms are stretched and warped, until corruption and bribery are rampant. We joke about corruption in places like Nigeria, although it really isn't a laughing matter.
Here, it was traditionally more subtle than that, with "good chaps" shaking hands with other "good chaps" to do quiet deals. What is being alleged is that such a process has become rather less subtle, with friends of senior politicians having preferential access to procurement officials by bypassing the usual channels and, when large sums of money are being spent with the focus on speed rather than accuracy, the chances are that some very lucrative contracts will be offered to those who've positioned themselves at the front of the queue in order to make things happen.
And, if they're able to deliver, that might be excusable in a crisis like a pandemic. However, if they can't, and were never really qualified to be able to do so, whilst other, better suited bidders were excluded or ignored, that offers us a problem.
If it is perceived that friends of Government ministers have been profiting from public procurement contracts that they didn't merit winning, and that there was no credible process in place for determining whom best to award contracts to, then the concept of conflict of interest is in play.
It does surprise me that so many instances of potential conflict of interest have arisen, and that there doesn't appear to be any acknowledgement that perhaps Ministers should have left some clear distance between themselves and the procurement process. But that requires the setting of an example from the top, and the Prime Minister isn't terribly respectful of process, nor of truth. If he sets the tone, he's not likely to set a particularly good one.
It appears that there is an ethical weakness somewhere at or near the centre of British politics, and whilst one is loathe to call for an enquiry into anything one doesn't like, any enquiry that does take place into the Government's handling of the pandemic will need to take a cold, hard look at whether or not the VIP channel helped or hurt Britain's response to this crisis, and just how much money might have been wasted because of it.
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