more proof that PPP leads to offshoring of profits

It's really great to see that the British government is helping
companies to whom they give NHS work, offshore their
profits, thus paying less in tax than a normal company would.

That leaves more money for wine and cheese and for
buying politicians.

Checkit: The bureau investigates

NHS PFI firms avoid millions in tax

September 4th, 2012
by Tom Costello
Published in Bureau Recommends

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Fees from NHS projects are filtered into off-shore companies.

As crippling repayments on private finance initiative (PFI) contracts force NHS hospitals to make cuts, a new report reveals that the firms profiting from the deals are using tax havens to avoid paying millions of pounds in tax.

A report by the European Services Strategy Unit, and covered in the Sunday Times, reveals that as many as 70 NHS PFI projects are based off-shore.

Expensive PFI contracts have become a huge burden on dozens of NHS trusts. Last week the government announced that ‘hit squads’ of senior government auditors are to be dispatched to seven NHS trusts who are struggling to pay PFI bills. Earlier this year, South London Healthcare Trust, which manages three South London hospitals, was the first trust forced into administration after its £61m annual PFI bills saw the trust’s budget deficit spiral unsustainably.

These budgetry black holes are having a real impact on patient care. In a paper for the British Medical Journal, academic Alyson Pollack claims that hospitals blighted by expensive PFI contracts are compromising on care, reducing staff numbers and cutting frontline services.

The findings of the European Services Strategy Unit report make particularly unsavoury reading given this backdrop of threatened patient care.