Michelle Mone PPE scandal

Calahonda52

Even by Ahern/Haughey/Redmond/Dunlop standards this goes above and beyond.

It shines a 3 watt LED on how corrupt the Tories are.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/09/revealed-the-full-inside-story-of-the-michelle-mone-ppe-scandal

PPE Medpro and partners made as much as £100m profits on 203 m turnover

 At least £70m from PPE Medpro contracts taken offshore

 Small electronics firm behind supply of gowns for NHS

 Jet, yacht and racehorse purchased after PPE deal

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058275203/michelle-mone-ppe-scandal

We need to have a look here also. Lot's of companies were setup or had zero experience yet got contracts.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058275203/michelle-mone-ppe-scandal

It shines a 3 watt LED on how corrupt the Tories are.

No, it doesn't.

It demonstrates, if the accusations hold up, how opportunistic a businesswoman she was at a time of national crisis.

Taking that example to smear every single Tory MP is one gigantic leap of illogic.

Seth Brundle

It demonstrates, if the accusations hold up, how opportunistic a businesswoman she was at a time of national crisis.

And you don't think it odd how many massive contracts were given to Tory members and donors, in many cases without their business having the equipment or competency to deliver what was agreed? Silly me - of course you cant see that!

Taking that example to smear every single Tory MP is one gigantic leap of illogic.

The Tory MPs all supported Johnson as an incompetent PM. They supported his incompetent ministers. They supported the policies. They supported the approach to Covid which allowed many thousands of Britons to die. They are all pigs covered in the same muck! Your loyalty towards them won't let you admit that it was as bad as it has been. Had it been Labour who did what the Tories did, then you'd be the first on here to criticise them!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119977466#Comment_119977466

I have no time for Michelle Mone if she is guilty of that which is alleged.

In the same way that if a Labour Lord were to act in the same way, it would be wrong to tar all Labour MPs as somehow corrupt.

Corruption within politics is nothing new. And it infects all sides of the house.

RobbieTheRobber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119976562#Comment_119976562

Have you got an example?

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119976562#Comment_119976562

First post, straight to whataboutery.

It's the quintessential example of what the Tory party, along with conservatism are: vehicles whose sole purposes are to fund public money into private hands. A vile, corrupt, anti-democratic party that'll soon be kicked out.

TipsyMcStagge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119979162#Comment_119979162

https://districtmagazine.ie/features/hse-paid-organisers-of-fyre-festival-for-kids-1-4-million-euro-to-import-ventilators/

This for a start. The HSE gave millions to an extremely dodgy crook who couldn't even organise a kids party.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119986794#Comment_119986794

This is not really not a comparable situation, if you look at more reputable sources than articles based off twitter threads.

This company reportedly did go through the proper procurement process, and the HSE did highlight during the process that there were significant risks but given the crisis at the time it was worth going forward, as this was one of a number of contracts going through in parallel to try to get the desperately required equipment ASAP.

Ventilators were delivered but were not up to the required standard. The HSE have since received a partial refund and continue to be in dispute with the company. There is zero indication that the HSE were not acting in good faith or that there was anyone connected to the company in government. The 14 million (a chunk of which has since been returned) is also a pretty tiny drop in the ocean compared to the billions the Tories put into their cronies' pockets during the pandemic.

TipsyMcStagge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119986909#Comment_119986909

Those same excuses could easily be applied to Mone and the company she lobbied for desperately needed equipment etc and they did deliver gowns and masks which were deemed to be substandard. There's also the issue of Jennifer Carroll MacNeills family company getting a 3.2 million HSE contract.

The Tories blatant corruption is on a different scale but it doesn't mean we should pretend that all is squeaky clean here. There were many a cronies pockets filled here as well.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119987147#Comment_119987147

The same excuses don't apply though. In one case a company with zero connections to anyone in government or anyone in the procurement process went through proper procedures - the HSE acknowledged and highlighted the risks but given the exceptional circumstances at the beginning of the pandemic they went ahead. It didn't work out and they have been trying to recover the money since, and have successfully recovered about 30% of it.

In the other case someone who is a member of the party of government, who sits in an undemocratically elected chamber for life where they were put by that party, used her connections to completely bypass any and all standard procurement procedures and to pocket a significant amount of public money for the company run by her husband - a company that didn't even exist yet at the time she lobbied the government for the contract. The company provided zero usable PPE in return for over 200 million pounds and the couple themselves made off with around 60 million in personal profit.

Sometimes things go wrong or don't work out and public money is lost. In some cases the cause is blatant corruption, and in some cases it isn't. There's a clear difference between the two, and there's a particularly clear distinction between this being a consistent pattern of corrupt behaviour from the Tory government, while there is very little evidence that there is anything close to that kind of situation here.

Also the comparison to Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is utterly ridiculous - that is a well established publicly traded company that has been around for years, that went through standard procurement processes and already had active work with the HSE since long before she was a TD. Additionally, neither Jennifer Carroll MacNeill or her most direct family had any stake in the company or any role in the procurement process. Are you suggesting that any company in the country must be disqualified from carrying out its standard business should anyone who happens to be in any way related to anyone on the board run for election?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119977466#Comment_119977466

Have you read the national audit office review of PPE procurement, or rely on the Guardian for all your political opinions?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119987508#Comment_119987508

how do you know they completely bypassed any and all standard procurement practice (any more than pretty much every PPE purchase at the time bypassed usual standards)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119987147#Comment_119987147

The Jennifer Carroll McNeill connection is a complete red herring to be honest.

What should be looked at is the additional millions spent with Rigney Dolphin and awarded without any form of transparency from the HSE.

Rigney Dolphin of course, are owned by former chairman of the HSE, Frank Dolphin

Incidentally, a lot of this stuff that was deemed sub standard, wasn't actually sub standard, it had been ordered to the wrong spec. There a guy called Pete Smith who is pretty good at giving an impassioned overview of a lot of this and is very much an expert on the matter.

https://badbuying.com/a-mone-about-ppe-again/

the NAO review is a good read as well, in the words of Steven Donnelly, it was like a "war zone" and people were clamoring for PPE and ventilators and there were unscrupulous middlemen making huge profits. The Michelle Mone one is fairly small fry compared to some, but they can't be linked to any political parties, so no one cares

jmayo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119979162#Comment_119979162

Ventilators were purchased from China by a Middle Eastern based events management Roqu Media International company for the HSE.

They never went into service because AFAIK they were dangerous.

14.1 million wasted.

Now who thought it was a good idea to use an events management company with absolutely no track record in the industry to source highly technical medical equipment?

And why have those responsible for such a decision never been brought to book for it?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40189284.html

And who exactly is Westmeath native Robert Quirke owner of said company?

I wonder I wonder who he is mates with.🙄

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119990624#Comment_119990624

Wasn't this addressed by the HBS to Roisin Shorthall about political involvement in the procurement from Roqu?

https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/personalpq/pq/2021-pq-responses/february-2021/pq-10780-21-roisin-shortall.pdf

jmayo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119990808#Comment_119990808

All that says is that there was no political involvement in the decision.

BTW you do know you can have bribery and corruption without the involvement of politicians.

It does not give any reason why a company with no track record, no qualified personnel was contracted to procure highly technical pieces of medical equipment from an unproven source.

It is just waffle about lack of supplies.

Does that mean you look around and say look there is an events management company who can supply us with kit we know nothing about. Yeah lets appoint them and give them a 14million contract.

It still doesn't explain who approved this supplier, who signed off on the amount and what if any due diligence was carried out on the supplier and the equipment.

xxxxxxl

Was there not some issue with hand sanitizer too for schools. Cant rem what company.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119991167#Comment_119991167

I inferred from your comment that there may have been some kind of political invoilvement, possibly a TD recently in the news.

"And who exactly is Westmeath native Robert Quirke owner of said company?

I wonder I wonder who he is mates with.🙄"

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119976562#Comment_119976562

I actually heard George the penguin Mitchell invested heavily in Ppe years ago just as laundering exercise, guess he struck gold accidentally 😂

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992486#Comment_119992486

The relevant ministers would know what contracts are being given would they not ? Or we suggesting it's just Civil servants writing this off.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992549#Comment_119992549

One would like to think that any large departmental spend is run past the minister responsible before being signed off fully

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992599#Comment_119992599

So either not happening or it was signed off on Which is it ?

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992599#Comment_119992599

One would like to think so - however the department of health is a law unto itself

jmayo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992486#Comment_119992486

Not not thinking of any politician, but HSE/Dept of Health.

Remember scandal about a medical supplier and the kick backs they were giving out to purchasing depts.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119992549#Comment_119992549

Due to covid lots of stuff could have been pushed through quickly without ever reaching minister or dept of health.

But someone somewhere signed off on this even though it looked dodgy as sh** from the off.

It would be like Dublin bus needing new buses in a rush and some lad in there doing a deal with a lad that had a company running company days out to provide buses from some unknown company in China.

Andrea B.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119990624#Comment_119990624

That annoyed me at the time.

That needs further looking in to as to why my tax money was thrown at that lad.

Wonder who got the storage or disposal contract.

Stinks

Seth Brundle

Mone now being given the Led By Donkeys attention...

https://twitter.com/ByDonkeys/status/1603366602887536640?s=20&t=BjViuM3qqIP4s80o6ggxMQ

ancapailldorcha

They've knocked it out of the park again. The Led by Donkeys team do amazing work.