Questions to Grayling on contracts
CHRIS Grayling is facing a double inquisition into his department’s no-deal Brexit planning that forced the Government to pay £33m to Eurotunnel for “absolutely nothing”.
The Transport Secretary was urged to resign over the fiasco after it emerged on Friday that ministers had agreed to pay the Channel Tunnel operator the huge sum in order to avoid a High Court showdown. Eurotunnel had launched legal action over the awarding of £108m in contracts to three ferry firms, including one which had no ships, for services in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said MPS will be scrutinising the Department for Transport’s handling of the affair when its permanent secretary appears before them next week. “This was an extraordinary procurement which is now unravelling at the taxpayers’ expense,” she told The Times.
Eurotunnel had previously accused the DFT of awarding the contracts through a “secretive and flawed procurement process”.
The decision to award Seaborne Freight a deal worth £13.8m sparked concern as the start-up firm has not previously run a ferry service. Conservative MP Huw Merriman, who sits on the Transport Select Committee, said Mr Grayling will have to explain “exactly what’s happened, what he’s going to do to remedy it and what he thinks is his position as a result of that”.