Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on Chancellor Rachel Reeves appointing a new Covid corruption commissioner

Over in the UK, the new Covid corruption commissioner has launched his first investigation into PPE fraud.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves appointed Tom Hayhoe to recoup billions in fraudulent contracts.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says there was significant demand for PPE during the pandemic - and an investigation was needed. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Off to the northern hemisphere. We go Gavin Gray from
the UK. Hello Gevin either Andrew, how's is it cold?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, well last night was cold and people still suffering,
I'm afraid from the storm of last week, very heavy
rains and so forth. But yeah, not too bad. It
doesn't look at the moment in the long term forecast
like a white Christmas.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
However, no, this is true, but there are floods in Spain,
and of course there is snow on the Alps, and
everyone's getting quite excited about this. Let's get down to business.
The French Prime Minister Michel Beagnier faces a no confidence
vote today. This was, of course, after everything we're on
hold during the Paris Olympics. But it's all full born.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Now, yes, it's sure is and Michele Barnier and indeed
the French government facing I think a very very important
day for French politics. Plenty of people believing that the
political spectrum could enter a period that we've never seen
before in France. So what has happened, of course, is
that back in the day, as it were, Emmanuel Macron

(01:01):
called an election. He thought he would strengthen his party.
Instead it led to a really bad cobbled together coalition
party and then he put in place the president that
put in place the Prime Minister Michelle Barnier to try
and sort things out. Now, Michelle Barnier put before politicians
this really tough cost cutting, tax rising budget. Unsurprisingly, people

(01:26):
and the politicians don't like it. They keep voting it down.
He has then said, well, I'm just going to push
it through, which he did using special powers. And now
today they're holding a vote of no confidence in him,
in which both the far right and the left wing
parties are uniting to vote against him. So he is
set to become the shortest reigning prime minister in the

(01:49):
fifth Republic of France's history, just three months. He says,
there is no better way forward. We have to do
these things. They're unpleasant, but we've got to cut costs.
Others are saying, well, not on my watch.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
No, No, has anything ever happened that was good. After
someone's used special powers to push through an attractive legislation,
It's very autocratic, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, it seemed an odd thing, but he felt forced
to do it. He kept having to water it down
so that people would agree to vote for it. But
in the end, he just couldn't water it down anymore,
so it wasn't worth it. And he pleaded on television
last night, to our time last night to say to people, look,
you know, this will plunge the country into crisis because

(02:32):
a general election cannot be held until July, which means
the parties are just going to have to muddle along
for that period and that is where the stock exchanges
have taken fright as well in France.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
French are quite good at muddling. But anyway, years okay,
thank you very much. Right, you've got a COVID corruption commissioner.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yes, and the staffing work and this is all about
how much PPE personal protective equipment was ordered for health
workers during COVID and it was an amazing amount. Some
eighteen billion New Zealand dollars worth of PPE was bought
during the pandemic that now has had to be written

(03:13):
off from the government's books. Now there are reports that
some of it didn't meet the standards, some of it
fell apart, some of it was ordered the wrong way,
it's alleged, and today we're now finding out this COVID
corruption Minister Tim Haho is going to look at that
amount that was written off in the government books and
also likely to review the previous government's abandoning of attempts

(03:36):
to reclaim the money from deals that were said to
be worth at least one point four billion New Zealand
dollars and the government simply let the trails go cold
because it was felt many people were deliberately trying to
rip off the taxpayer. There is a separate investigation with
criminal offenses potentially at stake committed in the procurement system.

(03:57):
Of course, in truth Andrew it was chaotic. One wanted ppe.
People were just trying to get it from anywhere, and
people were offering it as having never made any PPE before.
And this is this what this new COVID Corruption Commissioner
is going to have to wait through.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
What I found amazing is that in fact, sitting members
of the House of Parliament were also trying to get
into the record, you know, and I thought, what are
you doing there, boy?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
You know, yeah, yeah, there's some lots of oddities, including
a fast lane, a fast track lane of vip lane
as it was called for certain companies. Well you know,
why were they allowed to bed you know, extra fast?
And of course the answer as well, sometimes allegedly friends
of friends and sometimes because yeah, the government was just desperate.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, okay, now how's quin Camilla.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Not well? So the Kataris have had a state visit
here to the UK. The red carpet has been rolled
out quite literally. I visited the House of Parliament for
the emmett and also a state bank quit and on
show was the King and Prince William and Princess Catherine.
So Princess Catherine's first state visit since sending her chemotherapy,

(05:10):
but no sign of the Queen. She apparently has taken
part of the state visit, but not having taken part
in any event that's outside. We're now being told her
chest infection, which she's had for several weeks and was
told it would be over in a couple of days,
that's been off for several weeks but has transformed and

(05:30):
she's struggling with the side effects of a form of pneumonia.
And that's the first time the seventy seven year old
has had the word pneumonia described about her from the
press officers, and so it does look a little bit
more serious than perhaps we were all being told.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yes, we still don't know what happened to Princess Kate.
But we do know she's back.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yes, and many people delight it, of course to see
that it might make mark a full return now to
Ryle duty for her, and she was remarkably good. I
think you know, those sorts of things you never potentially
quite recover from. But doing it in the full face
and glare at the media is going to be tough.
And of course yes, all eyes were on rather than

(06:12):
anyone from Qatar or the king himself, just to see
how she was looking.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Brilliant stuff. Kevin Grave from the UK, I thank you
for your time.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
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