Department for Health & Social Care
PPE Contract(s): Meller Designs Ltd
An Open & Candid Investigation - October 2023
Contents
- Payment prior to award
- Background
- Outstanding questions
Payment made prior to award
The unusual discovery that one company with a shareholder linked to Michael Gove & the Conservative Party, was paid prior to the contract being signed or awarded.
The unusual discovery that one company with a shareholder linked to Michael Gove & the Conservative Party, was paid prior to the contract being signed or awarded.
Early Payment
The award of large PPE contracts to Meller Designs PPE have been widely reported on from the original reports by Byline Times, Good Law Project, Open Democracy, The Mirror, The Times, The Guardian & others. I am going to throw light on something highly unusual that I believe has been missed up to now.
Meller Designs owner was David Meller. Meller is a Tory party donor & friend of Michael Gove. They were referred via the VIP channel by Michael Gove. It is also reported that Meller contacted Lord Bethell to lobby and speed up the process of contracts award on the 6th April 2020. Meller has many more links to the Tory Party.
Meller Designs were awarded six contracts for masks, gloves & sanitiser. The first awarded on the 26th April 2020, then the 5th May, a further one on the 7th May. They then also received a further 3 contracts in early June. However there is a bit of a kicker to this story!
It is reported that the phone call with Jim Bethell was on the 6th April 2020 and that the first contract award was on the 26th April 2020. What we found is that the first payment made by Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) to Meller Designs was actually made on 6th April 2020, the day of the call with Jim Bethell. It was for £37,752,000, the second payment made by the DHSC to Meller Designs was on 20th April 2020 for the sum £4,400,741.
So according to DHSC spending records over £42 million was paid to Meller Designs before the first contract was even awarded. Plus £37 million on the day of the Bethell call.
It has been reported that in some instances that the DHSC paid some amounts up front to PPE suppliers. The difference is that these reported payments were made to suppliers after the due diligence had been completed and after the contracts were awarded. It was not unusual for the DHSC to pay up to 50% to enable the supplier to then secure the order with the manufacturer. We are unable to find another instance where the supplier was actually paid before any contract had been awarded and more importantly signed.
The initial DHSC payments to Meller Designs were made 19 and 6 days prior to any contract award.
The award of large PPE contracts to Meller Designs PPE have been widely reported on from the original reports by Byline Times, Good Law Project, Open Democracy, The Mirror, The Times, The Guardian & others. I am going to throw light on something highly unusual that I believe has been missed up to now.
Meller Designs owner was David Meller. Meller is a Tory party donor & friend of Michael Gove. They were referred via the VIP channel by Michael Gove. It is also reported that Meller contacted Lord Bethell to lobby and speed up the process of contracts award on the 6th April 2020. Meller has many more links to the Tory Party.
Meller Designs were awarded six contracts for masks, gloves & sanitiser. The first awarded on the 26th April 2020, then the 5th May, a further one on the 7th May. They then also received a further 3 contracts in early June. However there is a bit of a kicker to this story!
It is reported that the phone call with Jim Bethell was on the 6th April 2020 and that the first contract award was on the 26th April 2020. What we found is that the first payment made by Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) to Meller Designs was actually made on 6th April 2020, the day of the call with Jim Bethell. It was for £37,752,000, the second payment made by the DHSC to Meller Designs was on 20th April 2020 for the sum £4,400,741.
So according to DHSC spending records over £42 million was paid to Meller Designs before the first contract was even awarded. Plus £37 million on the day of the Bethell call.
It has been reported that in some instances that the DHSC paid some amounts up front to PPE suppliers. The difference is that these reported payments were made to suppliers after the due diligence had been completed and after the contracts were awarded. It was not unusual for the DHSC to pay up to 50% to enable the supplier to then secure the order with the manufacturer. We are unable to find another instance where the supplier was actually paid before any contract had been awarded and more importantly signed.
The initial DHSC payments to Meller Designs were made 19 and 6 days prior to any contract award.
Outstanding Questions
There remains questions to be answered, particularly in relation to confirming the dates of payments and if the DHSC reporting is correct, then why these payments were made and who approved them?
There remains questions to be answered, particularly in relation to confirming the dates of payments and if the DHSC reporting is correct, then why these payments were made and who approved them?
