Department of Health ‘naive’ in its dealings with Greensill, say MPs
The firm was made a subcontractor to run a pharmacy early payment scheme in 2018 and began marketing a salary advance scheme for NHS staff in 2019.
Officials failed to consider possible conflicts of interest in the award of two government contracts to the failed financier Lex Greensill, a report by MPs has found.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee said there was no evidence an early payment scheme for pharmacies promoted by his company delivered any of the promised £100 million-a-year savings.
The committee chair Dame Meg Hillier said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was “at best terribly naive and at worst negligent” in its dealings with Greensill Capital.
The Australian financier had been an adviser to David Cameron’s government on supply chain finance and took on the former prime minister after he had left office.
Mr Cameron’s extensive lobbying activities on behalf of the company have been the subject of a number of other select committee inquiries.
In April 2018, Greensill Capital was appointed as a subcontractor to run the pharmacy early payment scheme and the following year it began marketing a salary advance scheme for NHS staff.
But when the firm collapsed in 2021, the taxpayer was left to pick up the costs.
In its report, the committee said neither scheme delivered what it promised and there was no clear rationale for why they were introduced.
“It is extraordinary that in respect of the salary advance scheme, there was no apparent concern that one company could offer a free scheme to NHS trusts which could also have the effect of boosting its reputation by association with the NHS brand and scale in order to win business elsewhere.”
Dame Meg said: “The utter failure of controls at DHSC – at best terribly naive and at worst negligent – in dealing with Greensill Capital far predate the pandemic.
“The promises made by Greensill and the easy acceptance of these by the Department of Health and Social Care are reminiscent of the emperor’s new clothes.
“That DHSC is now paying pharmacies more quickly itself begs the question why it ever engaged with ‘supply chain finance’ in the first place.”
