Table 2.

Summary of findings from the included studies.

Author, year Country	Description of the case	Actor(s) of the HCS involved	Classification of health corruption	Date of occurrence and announcement	Responsible for the announcement
Kość (25) Poland	The public health minister spent 5 million złoty (€1.1 million) on 120,000 FFP-2 type face masks and 20,000 surgical masks that were later found not to meet safety standards. The contract originated from a ski instructor who knew the actor’s brother, a health care businessman.	Central government, Health Ministry	Fraud and embezzlement of medicines and medical devices. Misuse of (high-level) positions.	Occurrence: Not clear Announcement: Not clear	Newspaper, Wyborcza
Koper (26) Poland	A former deputy health ministry agreed to pay €35 million to an arms dealer for ventilators without experience in health devices. Normally, the authorities hold public tenders for such large deals. In March, Poland’s parliament passed a law saying that tenders are unnecessary in COVID times.	Central government, Deputy Health Ministry	Fraud and embezzlement of medicines and medical devices. Misuse of (high-level) positions.	Occurrence: April 14th, 2020 Announcement: December 17th, 2020	Newspaper, Reuter
ENCA (27) Poland	Politicians, including members of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS), a Member of the European Parliament, and the former Prime Minister, received their COVID-19 vaccine ahead of their turn.	Supranational organization, Member of European Parliament. Central government, members of the ruling party.	Misuse of (high-level) positions.	Occurrence: December 30th, 2020 Announcement: January 4th, 2021	Newspaper, ENCA
Central Anti-corruption Bureau (28) Poland	Between March and June 2020, the Director of the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Warsaw abused his powers by appropriating property belonging to the Institute. This property included protective equipment, disinfectant fluids, and tests for COVID-19. The investigation indicates that those items were then transferred to unauthorized persons.	Central government institution, Director of the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Warsaw.	Misuse of (high-level) positions	Occurrence: Not clear Announcement: Not clear	Central Anti-corruption Bureau
Kern (29) Slovakia	The Head of the Material Reserves office purchased 200,000-speed tests of lower quality for the novel coronavirus for €6 million, 15 times more than what China paid. Also, he received a €200,000 transfer to his account, suspected to be from bribery.	Central government, Head of the Material Reserves	Procurement corruption Misuse of (high-level) positions	Occurrence: April 21st, 2020 Announcement: April 21st, 2020	Police from Slovakia
Interpol (30) Netherlands	Interpol detected a scheme to defraud German authorities in transactions to purchase face masks. A Dutch supplier requested €1.5 million in advance, claiming that the funds were not transferred, and an additional €880,000 were demanded to secure the shipment.	Supplier, a Dutch company.	Fraud and embezzlement of medicines and medical devices	Occurrence: March 15th, 2020 Announcement: April 15th, 2020	Interpol
Homolova and Lyndel (31) Netherlands	Information about the contracts awarded for purchasing goods related to the COVID-19 pandemic has not been made public. This includes the names of the companies awarded the contracts and the amount received.	Central and/or decentralized government.	Procurement corruption	Occurrence: Not clear Announcement: October 21st, 2020	Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Goodrich (32) United Kingdom	A total of 24 PPE contracts, accounting for £1.6 billion, were awarded to those with known political connections to the Conservative Party, and three contracts worth £536 million went to politically connected companies for coronavirus testing services.	Central government members of the ruling party.	Misuse of (high-level) positions. Procurement corruption.	Occurrence: February 2020 to December 2020 Announcement: April 22nd, 2021	Transparency International
National Audit Office (33) United Kingdom	“PPE suppliers with political connections were directed to a “high-priority” channel for United Kingdom government contracts where bids were ten times more likely to be successful. Almost 500 suppliers with links to politicians or senior officials were referred to the channel, where their pitches for contracts were automatically treated as credible by government officials charged with procuring PPE.	Central government, Department of Health and Social Care, Department of Education, and Cabinet Office	Misuse of (high-level) positions. Procurement corruption.	Occurrence: From March 2020 to July 2020 Announcement: November 26th, 2020	National Audit Office
BBC (34) United Kingdom	A court ruled that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care acted unlawfully by not revealing the information about the contracts it had signed during the COVID-19 pandemic.	Central government, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care	Procurement corruption.	Occurrence: From March 2020 to December 2020 Announcement: February 19th, 2021	High court
Kohler and Wright (9), United Kingdom	A senior NHS official in London working at the capital’s Covid-19 Nightingale hospital launched a business in April 2020 to trade PPE. The official was suspected to be part of procurement for PPE in the NHS.	Decentralized authority, NHS official	Misuse of (high-level) positions. Procurement corruption.	Occurrence: April 15th, 2020 Announcement: May 1st, 2020	News, The Guardian
Kohler and Wright (9) United Kingdom	Public Health England paid for antibody kits for COVID-19, but they later proved inaccurate.	Central government, Public Health England	Fraud and embezzlement of medicines and medical devices.	Occurrence: April 1st, 2020 Announcement: April 11th, 2020	Greg Clark, Chair of the Commons science and technology committee
Armstrong (35) United Kingdom	The United Kingdom government awarded a contract of £75 m for one million antibody tests to a business consortium. A public tender was not carried out, and the accuracy of the tests was not evaluated.	Decentralized authorities, United Kingdom Rapid Test Consortium	Fraud and embezzlement of medicines and medical devices. Procurement corruption.	Occurrence: October 6th, 2020 Announcement: November 12th, 2020	Good Law Project

PPE, Personal protective equipment.