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Published on: 25/11/2020 05:54 AMReported by: roving-eye
A family-run Merseyside company had to lay off one fifth of its employees after its offer to supply PPE to the government was first ignored and then refused.
The owners of Knowsley Business Park-based 'Florence Roby' say they've been frustrated by the government’s procurement process which handed out contracts worth millions of pounds to brand new companies, some owned by people with close Consetvative Party connections, but overlooked UK-based businesses with years of experience in the field.
Owner Jan Roby said: “If we had been given just one contract we could have got more jobs going for local people.
“There’s a lot of local raw talent around, we could have brought them in. But we’re struggling to keep going and it’s heartbreaking because only last year we were picked out by the government as one of four model successful factory firms. Yet we weren’t 'model' enough to even quote for a contract for PPE.”
'Florence Roby' has been in business for 50 years. When the government appealed for UK companies to help supply protective equipment to the NHS, they immediately came forward offering to supply reusable surgical gowns.
Jan’s son, Ben Roby, says: “Before the pandemic, they were paying £1.30 for a disposable gown.Our gowns cost £15, but you can use it 100 times. That was the NHS price we were charging. We were offering it at that price, which means that at 15p a use, it was significantly cheaper than the gowns they were using." But despite the huge national demand for PPE, Florence Roby heard nothing after making their initial offer to the body handling PPE procurement for the government.
Ben adds: “We never heard from them for about two months. No contact at all, other than the initial one to say they had received my offer.” And when, eventually, the government did respond to Florence Roby’s offer, more problems followed. Ben said: “At every stage they were just asking the same questions - who you were; what your offer was; how quickly you could produce. Someone would ring me two weeks later and it would be the same questions again.”
By the time, eventually. Florence Roby’s gowns WERE finally approved for sale to the NHS, the first lockdown was ending and the government told them their services were not required. Without a government contract and with their usual clients closed down or struggling, the company had to lay off five of their 25 workers. Jan says: “If we could secure just one contract for some PPE, whether it’s making scrubs or gowns, then we could take those people back on. But at the moment things are not looking good. We’ve got this massive skills base on our doorstep that we are not able to use for the good of the country.”
Meanwhile, a cross-party group of MPs led by Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran and Debbie Abrams, working with the 'Good Law Project' are taking the government to court about alleged misuse of their personal contact network to benefit their buddies in what has become known as the 'CRONEYvirus scandal which has led to instant amassing by some individuals of massive PPE fortunes:
Gosh you lot are gullible for anything anti-government.
The whole world wants/ed PPE the price has gone through the roof and a firm can't make money doesn't anyone not think something else was going on?
Thousands of nursing homes,private hospitals,dentists,vets,beauty salon,etc etc
The procurement procedure for PPE has been an utter shambles from start to finish, culminating in the purchase of £252 million pounds worth of masks that were useless. The independent newspaper printed an interesting article detailing the many cock ups. https://www.ft.com/content/9680c20f-...c-0e9554a8e0a7
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Little Londoner says:26/11/2020 08:55 AM
Originally Posted by local
Gosh you lot are gullible for anything anti-government.
The whole world wants/ed PPE the price has gone through the roof and a firm can't make money doesn't anyone not think something else was going on?
Thousands of nursing homes,private hospitals,dentists,vets,beauty salon,etc etc
The thing is the Tory Party are well known for repaying Donations many times over it is a fact of life and obviously in your eyes perfectly reasonable.
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