Firm given free school meals voucher contract despite ‘limited evidence’ of capability

Firm given free school meals voucher contract despite ‘limited evidence’ of capability:

Deal with supplier Edenred was worth up to an estimated £425m and awarded without tender

An investigation into the free school meal voucher fiasco, which left many families without food during lockdown, has found the government signed contracts worth up to £425m with a company for which there was “limited evidence” of its capacity to deliver.

The troubled scheme was set up in just 18 days and awarded to the French-owned company Edenred, despite the government’s own assessment that the company’s UK arm did not have the financial standing that would normally be required for the scale of contract, according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO).

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