4 2GM Tuesday July 28 2020 | the times
News
A company that failed to build schools
for 115,000 pupils in Pakistan was
awarded an extra £112 million by the
British government for projects around
the world.
IMC Worldwide was awarded a
£184 million contract to rebuild earth-
quake-damaged schools in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab in 2014 by
the Department for International De-
velopment (Dfid). However, six years
later some students are still being
taught in tents after safety concerns re-
vealed serious design flaws in 92 per
cent of the schools.
It has now emerged that Dfid award-
ed the company responsible a further
£112 million of business for projects
ranging from road construction in Ne-
pal to water sanitation in Sierra Leone.
Sarah Champion, chairwoman of the
international development committee,
said: “I find it quite staggering that the
government is still working with IMC
Worldwide on other projects when
Fluffy five These baby alpacas were all unpacked during lockdown at the farm in Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders owned by Stuart Ramsay and his wife, Jean McDonald
Ministers gave £275m of aid cash
to firm that built ‘unsafe’ schools
there have been so many serious flaws
in the work they delivered in Pakistan.
I am extremely concerned that a com-
pany like IMC Worldwide with the
track record it has is continuing to be
used by the British government.”
The government initially awarded
IMC Worldwide £184 million to build
31,084 classrooms for 115,000 pupils in
Pakistan in 2014. However, the project
was scaled back to only 5,618 class-
rooms and the fee was reduced to £
million after the company admitted
that it had underestimated costs.
Now Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the
secretary of state for international de-
velopment, has revealed that the true
value of the contract was £163 million.
In a letter sent last week to Ms Cham-
pion, Ms Trevelyan said it was her pri-
ority that children were able to con-
tinue their education with “minimum
disruption” but did not say when all the
schools would be ready.
Retro-fitting was due to be com-
pleted in February this year but IMC
paused reconstruction for new designchecks. At present 20 per cent of the
Pakistani children are being taught in
tents.
The correspondence also reveals
that IMC Worldwide has won a large
number of lucrative contracts from
Dfid since the initial contract in 2014.
A year after concerns were raised
about the Pakistan project, it secured a
£34.7 million deal to improve the water
supply to Freetown in Sierra Leone in- Initially scheduled for completion
in December last year, the project will
now not be finished until October 2021.
In 2018 the company won a £15.5 mil-
lion contract to build a road between
Mugu and Humla in Nepal. Last year
alone, Dfid awarded IMC Worldwide
five different contracts. In total the
company has secured 17 separate deals
totalling £275 million since 2014.
A spokesman for IMC Worldwide
defended its handling of the school-
building programme, noting that two
thirds of the budget had been passed on
to local Pakistani contractors.
“IMC exists to make life better for
people. We would never put children
and teachers at risk so throughout this
process we have taken a cautious and
conservative approach.
“IMC’s detailed analysis and testing,
which Dfid and its specialist experts are
reviewing, indicate that the vast major-
ity of classrooms have been deemed
safe and can be handed back to the local
authorities as Covid restrictions and
Dfid confirmation allow. Some class-
rooms require some retrofitting.”
“Two hundred and ten schools re-
quired temporary classrooms which
IMC provided together with fans, low-
energy lighting, plastic flooring and
whiteboards to ensure the education
environment is acceptable.”
A Dfid spokesman said: “The safety
of children is our number one priority.
It is completely unacceptable that
schools, which UK aid commissioned
IMC to build, have not been built to the
necessary standards.
“IMC has committed to retrofit un-
safe schools and classrooms to ensure
these are fit for purpose.”George Grylls
Ministers are split over Britain’s plans
for post-Brexit competition rules, ham-
pering trade talks with the European
Union.
The government has yet to say how it
will replace the EU business subsidy
regime that restricts how and when
ministers can step in to support industry.
The issue is said to be the subject of
fierce debate in Whitehall with the
Brexiteers take on Treasury over competition rules
Treasury saying Britain needs clear, in-
dependently assessed and enforceable
rules while others, led by Dominic
Cummings, favour a light touch.
The failure to agree and publish a
policy is preventing progress in Brexit
talks between Britain and the EU,
which resume this week.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief nego-
tiator, is understood to have told David
Frost, his UK counterpart, that Brussels
will not sign up to a free trade deal untilit is assured that British state aid rules
cannot be used to undercut European
competitors. The EU is especially con-
cerned that the government could
directly subsidise key industries to give
them a competitive advantage.
The Financial Times reported that
Brexiteers led by Mr Cummings, Boris
Johnson’s chief adviser, oppose any
legislation that would have the internal
subsidy regime between England, Scot-
land and Wales governed by an inde-pendent body. “No 10 seems to care
enough about this to potentially derail
the negotiations with the EU,” an offi-
cial told the paper.
Mr Cummings is understood to want
Britain to be free to set its own state aid
policy when the Brexit transition
period expires on December 31.
The Treasury has traditionally been
institutionally opposed to the principle
of state aid and is understood to be
pushing for an independent regulator.Oliver Wright Policy Editor
‘Avoidable’ cell time
Teenage boys in youth jails
were locked in their cells for
more than 22 hours a day during
the pandemic after face-to-face
education was blocked, according
to Peter Clarke, the chief
inspector of prisons. He said
that this was avoidable and
disproportionate. The Prison
Service said that it was now
safely relaxing restrictions.Child falls from flats
A toddler was taken to hospital
after falling from a block of flats
in east London. Police were called
to East India Dock Road, Poplar,
yesterday evening after reports
that a child had “fallen from
height”. Surrounding roads,
including the A13, were closed.
The Metropolitan Police said that
no one had been arrested. The
child’s condition was not known.Church investigation
The Church of England will
investigate a formal complaint
that the Archbishop of
Canterbury did not pass on abuse
allegations against the late John
Smyth, who ran a Christian camp
in the 1970s, in 2013. The Most
Rev Justin Welby has said that
the police were informed in 2013.
There is no suggestion he was
aware of wrongdoing at the time.Platelets clue to cancer
Men aged over 60 with high
blood platelet counts are at
greater risk of cancer,
according to researchers at the
University of Exeter. They found
that a high count was most often
linked to lung and colorectal
cancers. Dr Sarah Bailey, who led
the study, said: “Updating
guidance for GPs to investigate
higher counts could save lives.”Wind farms to cut bills
Giant offshore wind turbines to
be built around Britain are likely
to feed revenues to government
and reduce household energy
bills, a report has said. Imperial
College London analysed
agreements between wind farm
operators and five European
states, and concluded that Britain
was likely to have the world’s first
“negative-subsidy” offshore wind
farms. A study in Nature Energy
said the contracted price was
likely to be below the wholesale
price from the mid 2020s.A A B B B C E E
E E E E E H L L
L L M N N O R R
R R S S T T T U
Solve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only1 Yellowish-orange colour ( 5 )
2 Nuanced, understated ( 6 )
3 Clandestine ( 6 )
4 --- Dame Sans Merci, poem (2,5)
5 Situated towards the Arctic ( 8 )
Quintagram® No 75 3
Solutions MindGames in Times
Cryptic clues Page 10 of TimesKATIELEE ARROWSMITH/SWNS