She was accused of exploiting "difficult circumstances" ... anger in Britain over an Emirati company

Al Jazeera Net - London

Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) found itself at the center of a media controversy in Britain, after leaking data on its contract with the British National Health Authority, according to which the UAE company gets a huge amount for renting the famous exhibition hall "Excel" in London, which the Ministry decided Health transferred to a makeshift hospital facing the Corona epidemic.

The Sunday Times newspaper was the first to reveal the details of the deal, confirming that the Emirati company will get what amounts to two million pounds (about 2.4 million dollars) or three million pounds (about 3.6 million dollars) per month in exchange for renting the exhibition, an astronomical number especially in this " Difficult circumstance. "

As soon as the details of the amount that the Emirati company will receive, the angry reactions escalated in the media, as activists considered what happened legally and financially, but from an ethical point of view unacceptable, especially since there are other companies that have given headquarters to the British government to convert them to temporary hospitals without charge whatever The long period of exploitation of these sites.

Critical comparison
The British government is counting on the temporary hospitals it has set up in various cities of the country, to ease the pressure on hospitals in the event of a further epidemic.

The major exhibition halls were chosen for this purpose, among them the Exel exhibition, which is located in a strategic location in the capital, London, and has a capacity to accommodate four thousand beds. Indeed, the Ministry of Health is working in cooperation with the army to equip it.

The Ministry of Health did not announce the details of its access to these exhibitions, was it in exchange for or free of charge, and many assumed that the matter would be free as a kind of contribution from the owners of these exhibitions in efforts to confront the epidemic, unless the management of the exhibition owned by Abu Dhabi had another opinion, that the state should You pay a portion of the costs for exploiting their headquarters.

The Board of Directors of the exhibition "Excel" includes a number of former ministers in the British government, including two former ministers of defense and transport, and achieves annual revenues of 31 million pounds (about 38 million dollars), and was opened in 2000 before its acquisition by the UAE "ADNEC" company in 2008. .

Many people did not like the exhibition management thinking about concluding a deal in these circumstances, especially since other companies in British cities granted their exhibitions for free, and in the data obtained by the Sunday Times, it appears that the Ministry of Health was in a hurry to obtain the exhibition, and was not in a comfortable position In order to negotiate the amount of the headquarters rental.

Unlike the company owned by Abu Dhabi, the owners of the National Exhibition Center in the city of Birmingham decided to give the exhibition headquarters to the health authorities free of charge, in order to exploit it and transfer it to a field hospital with a capacity of 2000 beds.

The director of the center announced that "like the rest of the country, we want to help in any way to face this crisis", pledging that he will provide all the facilities at the exhibition headquarters to serve the Ministry of Health, without taking any compensation.

It is the same position announced by the Manchester Exhibition Center, which has placed itself at the disposal of the British National Health Authority and has openly declared that it will not receive any compensation.

Back out of the money
And the company that owns the exhibition center, "Excel", understood that it is in a position that will only be useful for it to announce the abandonment of any financial rights in exchange for giving it the space on which the temporary hospital was built, which was announced in a press statement to respond to information that it obtained a huge monthly sum in return for renting it to the exhibition. .

In a statement published on the official website of "Excel London", the Foundation's CEO Jeremy Reyes did not deny the existence of a first agreement with the British Health Authority to obtain the exhibition, stressing that the first agreement was "to contribute to some fixed costs" to return and confirm that after that I decided to manage The fair shall bear all fixed costs alone.

The British media, including the BBC and the Guardian, read this position as a "retreat" after the details of the deal were revealed.

In his statement, the Executive Director stressed that the use of "London Excel" by the British health authorities is "free of charge", adding that they joined the national efforts to immediately combat the Corona epidemic.

He continued, "We work in close cooperation with the medical authorities to ensure that the hospital launch process will take place in a few days, and we are here to support what the medical sector needs in this crisis."

The British authorities are increasing the number of beds in different hospitals to face the Corona epidemic, as they have now succeeded in providing 33,000 beds, in addition to a historic agreement with the private sector to provide the government with eight thousand additional beds, then work with the army to build temporary hospitals in a number of cities.

The government was able to establish a temporary hospital in London with a capacity of four thousand beds, another in Birmingham with a capacity of two thousand beds, and a field hospital in Manchester with a bed of one thousand, which is the same capacity for a hospital in northern Britain.