British minister defends multi-million pound PPE deals after critical audit

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Business Secretary Alok Sharma speaks during a virtual news conference, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain November 12, 2020. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS

Britain's Business Secretary Alok Sharma refused to apologise for a lack of transparency in spending millions of pounds of tax-payer money to secure personal protection equipment, saying the government was under huge pressure to supply the front line.

"The NAO (National Audit Office) report has acknowledged that we had to do things at a great deal of pace," he told BBC television. "The key pressure was to get PPE. We had to do an enormous amount, work very fast to secure the PPE and that's what we did."

The NAO said there had been a lack of transparency and a failure to explain why certain suppliers were chosen, or how any conflict of interest was dealt with, over 18 billion pounds ($24 billion) in procurement deals made between March and the end of July, often with no competition.

FILE PHOTO: Clinical staff wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as they clean the Intensive Care unit at Royal Papworth Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Cambridge, Britain May 5, 2020. Neil Hall/Pool via REUTERS

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton)