NHS kept using firm behind £6m corruption scandal for three years
The firm at the centre of a £6million NHS corruption scandal was still carrying out work for one health board three years after it was first charged.
Four men were jailed for a total of 29 years in June following a major investigation into the award of lucrative NHS contracts to Ayrshire-based telecommunications firm Oricom.
The probe was first revealed by the Daily Record after an NHS counter-fraud team swooped on Oricom's offices in 2015.
Directors Adam Sharoudi, 41, and Gavin Brown, 48, secured major deals during a 'corrupt relationship' with NHS telecoms bosses Alan Hush, 68, and Gavin Cox, 60.
Now an investigation into the contracts has revealed NHS Lothian, whose former telecoms manager Hush was jailed for eight years, carried on using the services of the firm up until March last year – paying out almost £100,000 after prosecutors were passed a dossier of evidence by fraud investigators.
Craig Marriott, director of finance at NHS Lothian, said: 'NHS Lothian did not enter into any new regulated contracts with Oricom Ltd pending the prosecution outcome.
'Limited transactions continued where there was no alternative and for maintenance of systems historically supplied by Oricom Ltd, which would have had to be removed, written off or replaced otherwise.
'To do this would have disrupted operational activities as well as incurring additional costs.'
More than 100 purchase orders detailing work between 2013 and 2024 amount to more than £330,000.
Dozens of orders, totalling almost £97,000, were paid after the procurator fiscal was handed a report on the case.
And the final two of those orders were dated after seven individuals had appeared in court for the first time in November 2021.
NHS Lanarkshire, whose former head of IT and infrastructure Cox was jailed for six years, confirmed it had paid Oricom £3.7million between 2012 and 2017, but terminated its second contract five years early.
It said: 'An initial contract was awarded to Oricom in 2012 with a three-year term. In May 2015, a second contract was awarded to Oricom.
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'This contract had an initial term of seven years, with options to extend for a further two years. Although it was intended to run until 2022, or potentially 2024 with extensions, the contract was terminated early on in April 2017.'
NHS Lanarkshire said it was unable to comment on the contract termination as it is subject to ongoing legal proceedings.
Just months after the contract was scrapped, NHS Counter Fraud Services confirmed it had passed a report to the fiscal concerning allegations dating between 2000 and 2014.
And during a three-month trial earlier this year, prosecutors proved contracts to supply and maintain equipment broke rules on financial wrongdoing in the tendering process.
The charges spanning between 2010 and 2015 included bribery, corruption, fraud, theft as well as others under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
One stated Sharoudi and Brown did 'acquire, use and possess' £5,719,244 of 'criminal property' paid by NHS Lothian, NHS Grampian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as well as NHS Ayrshire and Arran.
Jailing the four men, Lord Arthurson said: 'The reach and character of the corruption and, in particular, the corrupt relationship engaged by all of you was on a grand scale.'
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed it had not awarded any contracts directly to Oricom Ltd but it provided services to the health board as a third party via the national IT contract managed by NHS National Services Scotland.
The value was over £119,000 for a three-year term between 2015 and 2018, but the service was terminated in June 2017, weeks after NHS Lanarkshire ditched its contract.
NHS Grampian and Ayrshire and Arran said it did not hold any direct contracts with the firm.
Brown and Sharoudi were sacked as Oricom directors after their convictions. The Record has contacted the firm for comment.
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