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There is an ongoing situation in the UK regarding the propriety of the procurement of some goods and services during the response to COVID-19.
Conservative PPE contracts
Michael Gove and VIP lane
Good law project
Is this situation unique to the UK? The early response to COVID-19 required governments worldwide to react much more quickly to outside events. Are those actions being questioned regarding their legality and honesty elsewhere?
I don't think it's unique to the UK. I can think of at least two instances of controversy surrounding Covid-related procurement deals in the Netherlands and Thailand. I'll highlight some of the controversies.
In the Netherlands there was a row over someone who created a nonprofit organisation to import and provide face masks. It later turned out that the same person was involved in a for profit company tied to the nonprofit which allowed them to make money off of the face mask deals even though they presented themselves as a nonprofit.
And because of health risks associated with the masks from their organization, the masks were never used. The deal involved around one hundred million euro. The information above is based on the following Dutch Wikipedia excerpt (linked via Google Translate).
The deal is the subject of an external inquiry. This deal took place early on in the pandemic. For example, this Dutch state broadcaster article in May of 2020 (translated) describes that person's effort of providing masks.
According to Reuters, there are at least two lawsuits underway surrounding criticism of vaccine procurement and production:
The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) suit accuses Boon Vanasin of providing false information, claiming that the GPO, as coordinator for Moderna vaccines for private hospitals, sought to maximize profit from the public, the GPO said in a statement.
Another critic of the strategy, opposition politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, is facing charges of insulting the monarchy after accusing the government of over-reliance on a royal-owned firm to produce AstraZeneca vaccines. The crime is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment.
Some more accusations, as reported by the Thaiger in September 2021:
Complex, tricky accounting, embezzlement or a government going about its work in the middle of a pandemic? Accusations by the Pheu Thai opposition party are demanding Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha explain a 2 billion baht [about $60 million] gap between what was allocated for Sinovac vaccine purchases and what was actually spent.
All of this seems to be in play in 2021. It should be noted that Thailand only started seeing increased case numbers in 2021 (see the timeline in a previous answer of mine), so before that the government might not have put that much effort into procuring medical supplies.
In Germany, a number of politicians from the conservative parties CDU and CSU closed shady mask deals, many enriching themselves or their party in the process (Maskenaffäre). Some of the masks had severe defects, and others were severely overpriced. Some lower-profile politicians resigned from their offices, but there were no legal consequences for their corruption.
Austria also had its mask-related scandal (Hygiene Austria Maskenskandal), where a company with close personal ties to the office of the chancellor was accused of multiple shady actions, allegations ranging from intolerable working conditions to relabelling imported masks as domestically produced masks.
