SCOTTISH Government ministers were told of concerns with the Test and Protect system six weeks ago, The Herald on Sunday has learned. A concerned whistleblower contacted Minister for Children and Young People Clare Haughey about the running of the service after it was taken over by two firms – Go-Centric and Ascensos – in April. Their letter, sent in May, said call waiting times for the Covid information line, and for vaccination appointments under the previous contract provider, were “negligible” but added that it was not the way the service was now operating. The whistleblower highlighted the concerns about treatment of staff by Go-Centric, telling the Scottish Government minister: “The treatment of staff and the standards within the delivery of the contract have fallen so far that it has now become a completely different (inefficient) service to the one in which I previously worked.
A COMPANY which was awarded a £10m contract to run NHS Scotland’s contact tracing service furloughed some of their staff immediately after taking on the work. Staff working on Test and Protect for NHS Scotland were furloughed when Go-Centric took over the contract in April, the Herald on Sunday can reveal. The firm has claimed thousands from the UK Government for staff wages, beginning in the same month it was awarded the high-value contract from the NHS. Two companies linked to Go-Centric owner David Harper were previously stripped of public contracts in England and went bust, leaving millions in debt and many out of work.
Calls for urgent investigation after firm given £10m test and trace contract furloughed staff heraldscotland.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldscotland.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
More than half a billion pounds has been paid out by Scottish public bodies during the coronavirus crisis without any scrutiny. Analysis by the Herald on Sunday of public contracts show more than 160 were awarded by the NHS, Scottish Government, local authorities, and others directly to suppliers without any competitive process. Some of the firms given work directly include those with links to the SNP, as well as companies with no apparent track record of delivering the services they were paid for. The UK Government has come under fire for the same thing, with a lawsuit ongoing in the High Court to compel the government to publish all the details of the contracts awarded directly to firms without them being put out to tender.
4ICG appoints operations director to lead european expansion – PCR pcr-online.biz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pcr-online.biz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.