Recommendation 11

Most of the PPE was bought at speed early in the pandemic. This was at a time when there was a surge in demand in other countries, and at the same time as a temporary decline in global supply as factories temporarily shut to help reduce COVID-19 infections. This resulted in an extremely overheated global market; a ‘sellers’ market’, with customers competing against each other, pushing up prices, and buying huge volumes of PPE often from suppliers that were new to the PPE market. In order to meet the urgent demand, the Department adapted its normal procurement and inventory management controls. This has contributed to a significant loss of value to the taxpayer and left the Department open to the risk of fraud.23