Reeves to appoint Covid corruption tsar to claw back billions of waste

Rachel Reeves will soon name a commissioner whose job will be to recover billions of dollars lost to fraud in Covid contracts. This move will draw attention to wasteful spending by the government.

The chancellor thinks the Treasury can get back £2.6bn by investigating waste, fraud, and mistakes made in contracts during the pandemic.

This week, we will start the process of hiring a corruption investigator for Covid-related matters. We will collaborate with the Department of Health and Social Care. Once the report is completed, government lawyers will start seeking recovery of the funds.

The commissioner will collaborate with HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office, and the National Crime Agency to investigate around £7.6bn of fraud related to Covid. This comprises fraudulent claims for business loans and grants, wrongly obtained furlough payments, and misuse of Rishi Sunak's popular "eat out to help out" initiative.

Reeves will likely inform parliament that the commissioner plans to retrieve the money owed to the British people. He believes the funds have been wrongfully taken by criminals and should be used for public services instead.

"I will not accept inefficiency. I will use taxpayer dollars wisely and I will restore order to our government's finances," she will declare.

She is also expected to blame Sunak for the faulty contracts, especially the billions spent on unnecessary personal protective equipment (PPE).

Reeves is anticipated to mention that the previous administration raised taxes, but did nothing to address the growing waste and inefficiency problems.

This was especially clear during the pandemic, especially in regards to PPE. The previous prime minister, while serving as chancellor, approved numerous contracts worth billions of pounds that ultimately failed to provide the necessary support to the NHS. This is not acceptable.

During the election, Labour claimed that they could get back billions of dollars from fake contracts, but it's thought that over £4 billion of that money can't be recovered.

The Labour manifesto outlines a plan to examine how fraud and corruption affect UK public services and to change the rules for public procurement by implementing a system to ban and exclude individuals involved in fraud against the government.

The former government faced criticism for its actions during the pandemic, such as changing its regular purchasing procedures and setting up a special route for PPE production that favored individuals with personal ties to government officials.

According to recent reports, the government spent almost £10 billion on PPE that couldn't be used during the Covid pandemic. The DHSC's annual accounts in January indicated that around 75% of the funds allocated for PPE during the crisis were ultimately lost.

The past administration justified the expenditure, pointing to the unusual situation during a pandemic when there was a severe shortage of PPE worldwide. This resulted in increased costs and a frantic effort to obtain protective gear for healthcare workers on the front lines.

Reeves has requested that HMT conduct a fresh examination of the government's financial situation, which is anticipated to be released in the coming week. The chancellor will address Parliament before the recess to discuss the state of the government's finances, as well as her plan regarding the public sector pay review. This announcement, likely to be made next Monday, will also announce the date of the upcoming budget and initiate the forecast production process for the Office of Budget Responsibility.