A £350 million government Covid-19 contract won by Impellam-owned healthcare staffing firm Medacs Healthcare has come under scrutiny due to the firm’s ties to Conservative party donor and former treasurer Lord Ashcroft.

Ashcroft is a chairman for Impellam, the 16^thlargest global staffing firm. He has previously donated to the Conservative party and according to The Citizens, he has donated £176,104 to the Tories since the pandemic began and £851,029 since 2001.

As a major healthcare staffing provider, Medac’s award of the contract is hardly surprising but it follows a wave of negative stories where the government has awarded Covid-related contracts to friends and donors. The Labour party has repeatedly criticised the government over its approach and has demanded “transparency so the government can be properly held to account for their use of the public’s money”.

Meanwhile, a National Audit Office report last year found that politically connected firms were given 'high priority' for government Covid contracts.

According to The Guardian, Ashcroft’s spokesman said that he was not involved in the negotiation of Medacs Healthcare’s £350m contract with the DHSC, and did not know about it until after it had been awarded.

Impellam told The Guardian that it “has not benefited from any connections that any non-executive may hold,” and that the value of the contract includes wages of scientific and support staff who will be delivering the services. “The non-executive directors do not have any involvement in the award of contracts or the operational, day-to-day management of the company.”

A DHSC spokesperson said that the framework agreement was concluded with Medacs Healthcare after a full open market competition, saying: “Proper due diligence is carried out on all government contracts.”

An investigation from OpenDemocracy revealed that last month the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care awarded the £350 million contract to Medacs Healthcare plc. In recent weeks, the company, which specialises in providing staff to the NHS, social care services and private healthcare providers, has been advertising for staff to work on the huge vaccination project. Medacs has previously worked with numerous councils across England but this appears to be the company’s first major COVID contract.

The public version of the contract between government and Medacs, which closed on 18 December, lists the total value at £350.4 million and describes it as ‘the provision of temporary workforce to support medical and clinical services in laboratories or to assist the national testing programme in response to Covid-19.’ The contract has been heavily redacted and does not include key sections – including the ‘contract charges’ and details of the services being provided.

Medacs’ work appears to be related to the National Vaccine Programme. In a post last month on its site, the company announced, “We are delighted to announce that Medacs Healthcare is working as a strategic partner with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System to assist in building a workforce for the National Vaccination Programme.” It was also recruiting for healthcare professionals and support staff.

The awarding of the contract to Medacs Healthcare has come under criticism with Shadow cabinet office minister Rachel Reeves telling OpenDemocracy, "People are understandably furious seeing businesses owned and run by the friends and donors of the Tory Party being awarded huge multi-million-pound public contracts throughout this pandemic.”

“Cronyism, incompetence and waste have been everyday features of this government's approach to outsourcing and ministers show little willingness to learn lessons from the National Audit Office investigations,” Reeves added.

Staffing Industry Analysts reached out to Medacs Healthcare for further comment. The company provided the following statement: "Medacs Healthcare is a leading healthcare staffing company providing healthcare recruitment expertise to public and private sectors. The contract was awarded through a fit and proper process under the Crown Commercial Services Framework which is in turn regulated by NHSE/I. Medacs Healthcare is an approved and existing supplier under this Framework.  The significant majority of the contract value is based on salary, and related costs for experienced healthcare professionals, scientific and support staff supplied to work at the heart of the nation's response to COVID-19 by creating a workforce for the Test and Trace Programme."