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• 20 per cent of the contracts went to just ten companies;
• the highest items by value included surgical masks and gloves, drugs such as paracetamol, and
COVID-19 testing kits.
The report prompted investigative journalists to delve further, revealing that two individuals had
received more than USD 15.3 million in public money.
Figure 14: Data showing that over a fifth of contracts were awarded to just 10 suppliers
Challenges
The FCD report pointed out several areas in which the data and the tool itself could be improved:
• searching for information, particularly unit prices, was not a simple process and would take too
long for most members of the pubic;
• contracts did not indicate which buying procedure, for example direct award, was used during
the emergency; and
• coding errors meant that many contracts had to be checked manually to ensure that the data
were correct.
42 Procurement guidelines for smart sustainable cities | May 2023
