Once again the controversial big tech company, Palantir, has been in the news. Reports detailed the role vested interests, dark money, powerful connections, and lobbying play in National Health Service (NHS) procurement in the UK. Palantir is by no means the only example of questionable procurement decisions made in the NHS.
All 15 government-identified companies making up the NHS’s highest value commercial partners appear on at least one of the Good Jobs First databases of corporate misconduct: Violation Tracker Global, Violation Tracker US (VT), and Violation Tracker UK.
In theory, public contracting is safeguarded from corporate misconduct via national legislation like The Procurement Act 2023, which allows public contracting bodies to exclude suppliers that have engaged in certain unlawful behaviour such as bribery, money-laundering, or human trafficking.
However, in practice this isn’t always so clear cut.
NHS Strategic Supplier: Abbott Laboratories
Abbott Laboratories, a US based pharmaceutical company, is an NHS strategic supplier. Appearing 29 times on VT, Abbott has a penalty total of $785 million in the US.
Abbott is one of the main suppliers of medical devices and diagnostic equipment to the NHS. It has also faced several significant criminal and civil charges in the US. For almost three decades Abbott has been settling massive claims out of court following accusations of false claims, illegal promotion, kickbacks, mis-selling its drugs to dementia and...
Once again the controversial big tech company, Palantir, has been in the news. Reports detailed the role vested interests, dark money, powerful connections, and lobbying play in National Health Se...