Jens Spahn: What the special report about the ex-health minister says

Former Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU), according to an investigation report “against the Council of his specialist departments”, entered the protective mask procurement in the corona crisis. This emerges from the report by the special investigator Margaretha Sudhof on the mask procurement. The lawyer had been deployed by Spahn’s successor Karl Lauterbach (SPD).

The Ministry of Health only emailed the report after a long debate with blackened passages to the chairman of the Bundestag budget committee. It is available to the German Press Agency in Berlin.

The special investigator, formerly employed in several ministries as State Secretary, certifies Spahn and the other responsible for the federal ministries and the subordinate departments at the time to “have” unimaginable beyond the personal consideration “.

“However, as in this case, a lack of economic understanding and political ambition can lead to the fact that not as a team ‘state’, but as a team ‘I’ acted,” said the report. The decision to master the procurement alone is still “considerable costs and risks”. Other media had already reported on these passages.

The report also states that Spahn did not trust the “functioning federal administration” and the procurement authorities at the time. So there was no “needs -based control” by the ministry. “As a result, the need specified in the crisis staff was procured.”

The Sudhof, the Sudhof, stipulates: “The subject level of the BMG (Federal Ministry of Health) tried to convince the Federal Minister that due to a lack of expertise and personnel, procurement should not be brought into the house, but should remain with the procurement authorities. However, the then Federal Minister intervened personally and used his contacts.”

At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, protective FFP2 masks could not be obtained and then narrowly. The federal government still threatens the federal government out of billions of risks. Spahn, who is now Union faction leader, has defended the procedure at that time several times.

Left boss Ines Schwerdtner is committed to a political break from the ex-health minister and Union faction leader. “Perhaps it takes time to reflect on his actions far from the political company,” Schwerdtner told the magazine “Spiegel” on Tuesday. “This man must never hold a ministerial post again.” Even as chairman of the Union faction, he was no longer wearable as a health minister after his “self -fermenting”.

“The report relentlessly shows how Spahn acted as an I-AG,” says Schwerdtner. Without sufficient competence, the then health minister ignored the advice of experts and approved orders of personal contacts. The left -wing chief accuses Spahn of uneconomical and ineffective action, and he also does not reveal a bit of guilt.

Spahn is defended by the Union. “At that time, quick and pragmatic action was required, not the usual processes,” said Union Parliament Manager Steffen Bilger (CDU) in Berlin on Tuesday. Sudhof is also “certainly not an independent expert”.

This Wednesday Spahn and the current minister Nina Warken (CDU) want to ask questions in the budget committee. Warken had already announced last week to give the committee the report that was initially retained. Razed passages affect employee data or things from ongoing processes with suppliers.