Economist questions whether NI Executive is competent enough to execute solo China deal for coronavirus PPE

Dr Esmond Birnie – an Ulster University academic, former UUP MLA and special advisor – made the comments as the Executive continues to stonewall over basic questions about a mooted £170m PPE deal (see below).

Controversy around the planned purchase was sparked last week, when the Nolan Show announced it had obtained leaked documentation about the purchase.

This documentation said that a top civil servant had warned politicians about the quality of goods from the Far East, saying that 35% of a recent PPE shipment from China to the Republic of Ireland had turned out to be useless.

The official reportedly also said that embarking on that supply route was “a high-risk strategy”.

TUV MLA Jim Allister meanwhile has questioned why Northern Ireland would make such a solo effort to buy PPE in the first place, seeing as how it is already being fed protective gear by the UK government in London.

The Department of Health in Northern Ireland responded by saying the London government had been “apprised of the proposed supply route”, and that the department “will aggressively pursue all feasible supply routes”.

Nonetheless Dr Birnie said that “more clarity and assurance” is needed over the £170m deal (which reportedly involves payment of a £60m deposit upfront).

He asked what the rationale was for going beyond the UK-wide model of providing PPE to the various regions.

“If the argument is that this is a market where suppliers hold the whip hand... then surely we might have got a better deal as part of a bigger UK procurement?” he said.

“I hope this is not a case of a ‘save himself he who can’ mindset because we will probably all suffer from that.

“Past experience suggests that sometimes when the NI Executive does its own thing, things do not end well.

“During 2009-11 the Executive could have simply joined in the RHI scheme as operating in Great Britain or cut and paste across all the GB regulations.

“Instead the decision was made to do our own thing and that became a ‘project too far’ as the recent inquiry report concluded.”

WHY IS NI EMBARKING ON A SOLO RUN?

The London government has set up a weekly “four nations PPE oversight board” to manage the supply of safety gear.

In the week leading up to last Friday, 20 million items of PPE were distributed across Wales, Scotland and NI.

However the London government also states that “in particular circumstances, devolved administrations are also pursuing their own sourcing of PPE to meet their particular needs”.

The Department of Health in NI was asked on Tuesday:

l– What exactly is being ordered from China;

l– Whether the deal has now been done;

l– When the gear might be delivered;

l– And why such a large tranche of the payment – £60m – is reportedly being paid upfront.

It did not answer these questions. It restated an earlier Executive statement that the company it was looking to buy from was “reputable” and they have “a lot of assurance” over the quality of the PPE.

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