Recommendation 20

For its first testing contract with Randox, the Department paid a price of £49.60 per single test. The contract price included the cost of supplying test kits, laboratory processing, transporting test kits and completed samples, and reporting of results. The Department could not provide details of contract negotiations prior to the contract’s award, including 33 Q 54; C&AG’s Report, para 15 34 C&AG’s Report, para 2.10 35 Q 54; C&AG’s Report, paras 16–17 36 Qq 59–60; C&AG’s Report, para 19 37 Q 39 38 C&AG’s Report, para 3.5. 39 Q 71 14 Government’s contracts with Randox Laboratories Ltd on the price.40 However, the Department believes it had standard processes in place at the time for interrogating costs and negotiating price reductions. The Department and the Agency acknowledged that no price benchmarking was carried out before the first contract was awarded. They said this was because there were no other companies offering an end-to-end testing service equivalent to Randox’s, so like-for-like comparisons could not be made at that time. The Agency added that the government’s aim at that stage of the pandemic was to build up testing capacity, which meant buying from all suppliers that could offer the necessary services rather than choosing among them.41