Small family-run pest control firm with just 16 staff won £108m contract to procure PPE for frontline NHS staff at height of Covid crisis
- PestFix, which has 16 employees, was awarded a £108million contract in April
- Founder Dan England said that his firm may have been quicker to respond to the call for help
- The Government has spent £340million securing PPE since the virus outbreak
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
A family-run pest control company that employs just 16 people was awarded a £108million contract to supply the NHS with PPE at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, it has emerged.
PestFix, which has net assets of £18,000, received the large contract in April when the Government was under increasing pressure to meet the demand for PPE.
Information collected by research company Tussell shows that the Government has spent a total of £340million on securing enough PPE to supply the NHS.
The Government awarded PestFix, a family-run pest control company that employs just 16 people, a £108million contract to supply the NHS with PPE at the height of the coronavirus pandemic
The Times reports that the chairman of parliament’s public accounts committee Meg Hillier said: ‘The need for PPE for frontline staff is urgent and critical but tendering outside the normal rules can be risky.’
She also said that the committee, alongside the National Audit Office would be scrutinising every contract handed out by the Government.
Normally PestFix supplies customers with supplies for pest control but received the £108million contract after responding to the Government’s call for help.
PestFix founder Dan England said: ‘Some of the bigger players that would normally be supplying this were perhaps not as quick to react or as dynamic.’
Mr England disputed the reported figure of £108million but did not say whether it was too high or too low.
The contract runs for 12 months.
Chairman of parliament’s public accounts committee Meg Hillier (pictured) said the committee and the National Audit Office would be scrutinising every contract handed out by the Government
Last month it emerged that the Government had awarded £1billion of state contracts to companies without public tender.
Companies including Randox Laboratories and US-run Brake Bros were among the companies to have been handed contracts.
The Government fast-tracked the rules on awarding state contracts so that they didn’t have to allow a time period for other companies to bid for the work.
The contracts included a voucher scheme for children for free school meals, providing food boxes for vulnerable people and coronavirus testing services.
At least 177 contracts have been handed to companies by the government to deal with the pandemic.
115 of those contracts were awarded under the fast-track route.