Editorial: RATs storage cost sums up bungled Govt procurement and rollout

The former Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, and then Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins, pictured in April 2021. Photo / Mark Mitchell

EDITORIAL

News this week that $160 million worth of unused rapid antigen tests (RATs) could be wasted looks like another sad chapter in a saga of poor decision-making, delivery and oversight of Covid equipment procurement.

Taxpayers should also be asking why the Government is paying $10,000 a day in storage costs for the expiring tests and PPE equipment.

This is despite Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand officials being asked months ago by Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall to find a way to repurpose or recycle the tests.

As the Opposition gleefully points out, that adds up to $45m over 14 months. You can buy four hectares of prime land with an existing building in Ōtāhuhu for just over $49m. Not that the Government should be in the business of buying property to house products it overspent on.

The problem is the Government’s delivery of RATs was flawed from the outset.

Just like the vaccine rollout, New Zealand was late to secure product and subsequently caught in the supply chain logjam when it most needed the tests.

The Government essentially banned rapid antigen tests until October 2021, despite businesses begging to be allowed to import them.

It also ignored local private sector technology such as Ubiquitome’s real-time, hand-held PCR testing technology, which could have been a viable, faster alternative and potentially alleviated the reliance on the RATs that would later be so widely adopted.

New Zealand-owned Rako Science was another alternative supplier snubbed by the Ministry of Health at the time, despite it having already supplied saliva-based PCR Covid testing to private companies.

Outspoken commentator Sir Ian Taylor would also reveal that Silicon Valley-based Lucira Health had offered, without success, its hand-held, single-use PRC testing kits for use at Auckland Airport.

“I did not for one minute suspect that almost five months on, no decisions would have been made on the use of this game-changing test that is currently being used by countries all over the world,” Taylor wrote in the Herald in May 2022.

The delayed arrival of rapid tests also extended the period in which Kiwis were subjected to intrusive PCR testing.

This was particularly intense for border workers, aviation staff and healthcare workers.

The PCR service was provided by the New Zealand-based Asia Pacific Healthcare Group, whose ultimate parent was 48 per cent owned by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.

Meanwhile, doctors were vocal in saying the Government had repeatedly failed to deliver the tools needed in the fight against Covid.

That meant extended lockdowns in Auckland especially and hindered thousands of firms desperate to return to business.

Now the country learns about 18 million unused RATs at a cost of $9 each ($158m) are about to expire.

Act wasted no time in blasting the Government over the issue, saying it showed how it lost sight of responsible spending during the pandemic.

For its part, Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand was “actively scanning the market” for ways to promote “re-purposing, alternative uses or recycling” of the tests.

Don’t hold your breath. Te Whatu Ora could not provide any examples of solutions it was considering, the Herald reported on Tuesday.