EY is tacitly assuming that the procurement team that DC wanted to fast track would have done something averagely useful, so that the delay from the checks and balances was a nett loss. But we are now in a place where we know that a lot of these cronies were underperforming horribly. (“PPE company” does t mean they know hiw to manufacture PPE, or have an existing stock..a lot of these people are setting up shell companies and hoping to be able to import from somewhere cheap when they need to come up with the goods). And the point of the checks and balances is to stop public money going to incompetent people.
Who’s lacking imagination? Can EY imagine that DC is operating under bias when he wants to throw public money at people he knows personally?
PS
One of the weird things here is that EY knows about EA, and EA is all about the realisation that giving money to ineffective organisation costs lives!
“PPE company” does t mean they know hiw to manufacture PPE, or have an existing stock..a lot of these people are setting up shell companies and hoping to be able to import from somewhere cheap when they need to come up with the goods
There weren’t enough people around who knew how to manufacture PPE. Manufacturing PPE was underfunded early in the pandemic and it was completely reasonable to fund people who don’t have much existing experience.
If you want to argue that the funding decisions were bad I think you have to demonstrate that there were people who were better capable of manufacturing PPE that didn’t get funding.
Can EY imagine that DC is operating under bias when he wants to throw public money at people he knows personally?
Robert Moses was likely biased when he hired the people who build New York where often a lot of corruption was involved. On the other hand he got things build.
In a pandemic getting things done fast is more important then making “unbiased decisions”.
PS One of the weird things here is that EY knows about EA, and EA is all about the realisation that giving money to ineffective organisation costs lives!
This is only true when money is scarce but you have plenty of time for analysis. In dealing with a pandemic money shouldn’t be scarce as even ineffectively invested money has massive returns. On the other hand time is very precious.
it was completely reasonable to fund people who don’t have much existing experience.
Yes, it’s reasonable to fund averagely good, or good-enough people But what actually happened was far worse. From the BMJ:-
“Those who are seeking to purchase things must show that they have accepted the most economically advantageous offer, although this does not just mean the cheapest, as it can take into account things like the ability to deliver rapidly. But above all, they must publish details of all contracts within 30 days of them being awarded so that others can scrutinise what has been agreed. And this is what Matt Hancock did not do.
The struggles that patient facing health and social care workers faced when trying to obtain PPE are well known, although seemingly not to the health secretary when he told the BBC that there had been no national shortage. Some of the best accounts are in books by two British doctors, Rachel Clarke and Dominic Pimenta. Indeed, Pimenta stepped away from medicine to create a charity to source PPE for the NHS.
Yet equally shocking were the stories of how the procurement process was operated. In one of the most visible cases, only a fraction of 400 000 gowns ordered from a Turkish t shirt manufacturer arrived. When they did arrive they were late, despite the Royal Air Force being sent to collect them, and they were found to be unusable. Fifty million face masks, purchased through a company specialising in currency trading and offshore property, part of a £252m (€291m; $348m) contract, were also unusable. A Miami jewellery designer, awarded a £250m contract for PPE, was found to have paid £21m to a consultant to broker the deal. A pest control company with net assets of £19 000 was given a £108m contract for PPE. A highly critical report by the National Audit Office provides more example”
Note that the normal procurement process allows you to trade off money against time, so you don’t have to do care it to does things up.
Robert Moses was likely biased when he hired the people who build New York where often a lot of corruption was involved. On the other hand he got things build.
Which is not analogous to the PPE procurement scandal , because the PPE was not delivered. An analogy would be Moses hiring jewelry designers to build bridges which then fall down.
In a pandemic getting things done fast is more important then making “unbiased decisions”.
Getting things done at all is part of getting things done fast.
Given that you ignored the suggestion, it seems like you don’t know of any better targets to fund for PPE distribution
I am not claiming they should have gone to me for advice, I am claiming they should have followed procedures which are designed to get things done. It’s a fallacy that you can cut corners and still get equally good results.
Generally, things are not getting done in the last decades since those procedures were introduced and a lot more got done in Moses time when those procedures didn’t exist. See the debate on the Great Stagnation.
The main point of Brexit from Cummings side was to be able to deregulate and escape the Great Stagnation.
If you think that the bureaucracy that stiffled everything is helpful here, point to where you think the bureaucracy should have redirected the money towards.
Which things aren’t getting done? The vaccine rollout was a big success, the track and trace system was an expensive failure. Its possible to look at evidence, you don’t have to just pick a narrative.
The main point of Brexit from Cummings side was to be able to deregulate and escape the Great Stagnation
That was the theory. Yet his attempt to fast track PPE was a failure in practice .
At what point is the theory revised according to the evidence?
where you think the bureaucracy should have redirected the money towards.
Someone who had PPE. It isn’t difficult to do better than complete failure.
The Government’s PPE team has been working since at least September to stem the flow of kit from the Far East. Staff have been negotiating with suppliers to exit contracts and delay PPE production, say senior procurement sources in the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS.
That sounds like the Cummings strategy succeeded in producing more then necessary PPE for the autumn/winter. They did spent a bunch of money for it, but PPE was really important so it’s worthwhile to pay more to actually get the PPE that’s needed.
The costs of lockdowns is very huge. Compared to that the cost for PPE, vaccines and scientific research isn’t that high so it makes sense to invest more capital into it instead of trying to save money and then ending up with to little.
EY is tacitly assuming that the procurement team that DC wanted to fast track would have done something averagely useful, so that the delay from the checks and balances was a nett loss. But we are now in a place where we know that a lot of these cronies were underperforming horribly. (“PPE company” does t mean they know hiw to manufacture PPE, or have an existing stock..a lot of these people are setting up shell companies and hoping to be able to import from somewhere cheap when they need to come up with the goods). And the point of the checks and balances is to stop public money going to incompetent people.
Who’s lacking imagination? Can EY imagine that DC is operating under bias when he wants to throw public money at people he knows personally?
PS One of the weird things here is that EY knows about EA, and EA is all about the realisation that giving money to ineffective organisation costs lives!
There weren’t enough people around who knew how to manufacture PPE. Manufacturing PPE was underfunded early in the pandemic and it was completely reasonable to fund people who don’t have much existing experience.
If you want to argue that the funding decisions were bad I think you have to demonstrate that there were people who were better capable of manufacturing PPE that didn’t get funding.
Robert Moses was likely biased when he hired the people who build New York where often a lot of corruption was involved. On the other hand he got things build.
In a pandemic getting things done fast is more important then making “unbiased decisions”.
This is only true when money is scarce but you have plenty of time for analysis. In dealing with a pandemic money shouldn’t be scarce as even ineffectively invested money has massive returns. On the other hand time is very precious.
Yes, it’s reasonable to fund averagely good, or good-enough people But what actually happened was far worse. From the BMJ:-
“Those who are seeking to purchase things must show that they have accepted the most economically advantageous offer, although this does not just mean the cheapest, as it can take into account things like the ability to deliver rapidly. But above all, they must publish details of all contracts within 30 days of them being awarded so that others can scrutinise what has been agreed. And this is what Matt Hancock did not do.
The struggles that patient facing health and social care workers faced when trying to obtain PPE are well known, although seemingly not to the health secretary when he told the BBC that there had been no national shortage. Some of the best accounts are in books by two British doctors, Rachel Clarke and Dominic Pimenta. Indeed, Pimenta stepped away from medicine to create a charity to source PPE for the NHS.
Yet equally shocking were the stories of how the procurement process was operated. In one of the most visible cases, only a fraction of 400 000 gowns ordered from a Turkish t shirt manufacturer arrived. When they did arrive they were late, despite the Royal Air Force being sent to collect them, and they were found to be unusable. Fifty million face masks, purchased through a company specialising in currency trading and offshore property, part of a £252m (€291m; $348m) contract, were also unusable. A Miami jewellery designer, awarded a £250m contract for PPE, was found to have paid £21m to a consultant to broker the deal. A pest control company with net assets of £19 000 was given a £108m contract for PPE. A highly critical report by the National Audit Office provides more example”
Note that the normal procurement process allows you to trade off money against time, so you don’t have to do care it to does things up.
Which is not analogous to the PPE procurement scandal , because the PPE was not delivered. An analogy would be Moses hiring jewelry designers to build bridges which then fall down.
Getting things done at all is part of getting things done fast.
Given that you ignored the suggestion, it seems like you don’t know of any better targets to fund for PPE distribution.
In a crisis like that it makes sense to fund a bunch of companies even if the expectation is that some of them won’t be able to deliever.
I am not claiming they should have gone to me for advice, I am claiming they should have followed procedures which are designed to get things done. It’s a fallacy that you can cut corners and still get equally good results.
Generally, things are not getting done in the last decades since those procedures were introduced and a lot more got done in Moses time when those procedures didn’t exist. See the debate on the Great Stagnation.
The main point of Brexit from Cummings side was to be able to deregulate and escape the Great Stagnation.
If you think that the bureaucracy that stiffled everything is helpful here, point to where you think the bureaucracy should have redirected the money towards.
Which things aren’t getting done? The vaccine rollout was a big success, the track and trace system was an expensive failure. Its possible to look at evidence, you don’t have to just pick a narrative.
That was the theory. Yet his attempt to fast track PPE was a failure in practice . At what point is the theory revised according to the evidence?
Someone who had PPE. It isn’t difficult to do better than complete failure.
You haven’t demonstrated that it was a failure and another strategy would have produced more PPE.
If I google I find statements like:
That sounds like the Cummings strategy succeeded in producing more then necessary PPE for the autumn/winter. They did spent a bunch of money for it, but PPE was really important so it’s worthwhile to pay more to actually get the PPE that’s needed.
It’s worthwhile up to a point. Wasting money costs lives as well.
The costs of lockdowns is very huge. Compared to that the cost for PPE, vaccines and scientific research isn’t that high so it makes sense to invest more capital into it instead of trying to save money and then ending up with to little.
Its not an either/or thing. PPE,.lockdowns and travel bans were all needed simultaneously in early 2020.
There’s been an investigation, which the BMJ article summarised.