Don’t celebrate the Tories’ downfall – uproot the system that enabled them
Transparency International researchers have exposed the extent to which contracts carrying a "profound" risk of corruption were concluded by the Conservative government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
£41.8 billion was spent over three years, mobilising vital resources in response to an unprecedented crisis. According to the report, approximately £15.3 billion went into 135 separate contracts at significant risk of corruption.
Just under £4.1 billion was awarded to suppliers with political connections to the Conservative Party, with several contracts expedited through ‘high priority’ lanes. Due diligence was swerved, and suppliers sailed through the process with little to no competition.
Less than two months ago, Chancellor Rachel Reeves swore to restore her position’s integrity, declaring she would appoint a ‘COVID Corruption Commissioner’ tasked with investigating an estimated £7.6 billion of related fraud.
But the British public is tired of ‘independent inquiries’, empty promises that ‘lessons will be learned’, and fighting for justice and compensation for travesties that should never have occurred.
From 'Partygate' to infected blood, KGB connections to crumbling schools: we’ve seen how the most powerful in our society enjoy exuberant lifestyles at the expense of our country’s most vulnerable.
Perhaps the most blatant example is the £7,000 of taxpayer’s cash Boris Johnson spent covering up the £112,000 makeover of his Downing Street flat. At the same time, the families of victims of the Grenfell Tower fire were five years into their campaign for answers, which recently exposed the gross negligence of successive governments.
Even purported ‘good guys’ cannot be trusted. Consider the recent post office scandal, in which the legal battle of 550 sub-postmasters was successfully bankrolled by a third-party investment firm based in the UK, which stood to profit from their eventual win.
Therium, the firm in question, raises its money from unnamed hedge funds and investors from all over the world. It is unclear who these investors are, or how much sway they hold over the cases that Therium cherry picks for profit.
Since its moment of glory back home, Therium has come under suspicion of corruption in another case. It is currently being subpoenaed in the US after relentlessly pursuing a rogue arbitration award that has been formally dismissed by Courts in Madrid, Paris and the Hague.
The arbitration award in question came out of a case which Therium funded, at the behest of two high-profile lawyers, Paul Cohen and Elisabeth Mason, both of whom have connections with senior American politicians and the tech giants of Silicon Valley. Cohen and Mason were leading the case of eight Filipino plaintiffs who claimed rights over the Malaysian region of Sabah, based on a long-outdated colonial treaty, and sought compensation from the Government of Malaysia for its continued rule over the region.
Cohen and Mason persuaded a Spanish court to appoint an arbitrator to hear the claim, but the court subsequently identified a serious error in the appointment process, and ordered its appointed arbitrator, Gonzalo Stampa, to drop the case. However Stampa decided to defy the court, and instead simply moved the proceedings to Paris, demanding that Malaysia should pay a staggering $15 billion award: a move which has since invited scrutiny given the “unusually high” fee paid to Stampa for his work on the case.
Stampa has since been criminally convicted for contempt of court, and his ruling has been invalidated numerous times.
But having ploughed at least $20 million into the case, Therium appears to desperate to recoup its mounting losses. In what looks to be an increasingly speculative move, Cohen and Mason have commenced arbitration against the Spanish Government for the enormous sum of $18 billion, challenging the decisions of the Spanish court and claiming that its conviction of Stampa is the reason for their case being derailed.
What connects this case to the scandals that have recently plagued the UK is the lust for financial returns. Those in power scrimp when it benefits them, while embracing the lowliest tactics to increase their own wealth.
The circumstances of British people cannot be retroactively improved. And another inquiry, alongside paltry compensation, will not bring lives back.
Instead, we must evaluate the systemic weaknesses that allow corruption, exploitation and neglect to occur. We must introduce new legislation, strictly and quickly enforced. And we must carefully regulate the financial environment, forcing powerful people and institutions to declare their activities and conflicts of interest.
Then will we have justice, in the moments we need it most.
Saman Rizwan is an analyst of South Asian affairs and a former researcher at the Centre for Strategic and Contemporary Research and the National Dialogue Forum.
