Among some 1,200 contracts conferred by the central government and eventually made public—deals worth a collective $22 billion—roughly half had been secured by companies that tripped serious questions of propriety. The recipient companies were frequently run by people connected to the governing Conservative Party. One company headed by an employee of the Board of Trade, a government body, secured a $340 million contract to furnish protective gear for medical staff. It eventually produced 50 million masks at a cost of $200 million. They proved defective and could not be used. Meanwhile,
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