A company run by a Tory donor has won an £11.55m contract to supply temporary classrooms to schools affected by the RAAC crisis, the Mirror can reveal.
Wernick Buildings Ltd won the contract from the Department for Education in September, an investigation by the Good Law Project has found. More than 200 schools are affected by fears over the safety of crumbly concrete and many of them require temporary classrooms to allow pupils to continue with their face to face education.
It is unclear if it there was a "mini-competition" before Wernick’s contract started on September 12 or if this was a "direct purchase from a pre-established framework agreement". Wernick Buildings is controlled by David Wernick who has donated £71,000 to the Conservative Party, either personally or through his companies, between 2001 and 2021. More than half this amount - £42,000 - has been donated since 2019.
Wernick has served as a Tory councillor and was previously chairman of the Conservative Association in Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden's Hertsmere constituency. His firm has won more than £20m in government contracts since 2020, including one worth £18.6m to supply infrastructure, maintenance and servicing for Covid testing centres in 2020.
The Good Law Project revealed earlier this week that Wernick Buildings has won three contracts worth £546,000 to store unused PPE in rental containers.
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, head of engagement at the Good Law Project, said: “It’s outrageous that a Tory donor's company is set to benefit from Ministers' scandalous failure to stop our schools from crumbling. Unbelievably, this is the same company currently being paid by the Government to store the unusable PPE that it bought at inflated prices during the pandemic.
