At the beginning of the pandemic, the state was desperately looking for masks – and bought them in large quantities under special conditions. Ongoing disputes could still result in significant costs.
The federal government is facing billions in risks from ongoing disputes over the supply of protective masks at special conditions during the coronavirus pandemic. Lawsuits have currently been filed in around 100 cases with a total value in dispute of 2.3 billion euros, according to a response from the Ministry of Health to a query from FDP budget politician Karsten Klein.
The “Welt am Sonntag” was the first to report on this. The outcome of the lawsuits remains to be seen, Klein told the newspaper. But one thing is already clear: “The consequences of the massive over-procurement under the then Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) are becoming increasingly devastating.”
The background to this is the government procurement of urgently needed but very scarce masks for the health care system in the early phase of the 2020 Corona crisis. In order to be faster, the ministry used a special procedure in which supply contracts were concluded at fixed purchase prices without further negotiations. In many cases, the ministry later refused to pay, citing quality defects, among other things. Suppliers and dealers then filed lawsuits. In retrospect, criticism was also voiced that too many masks had been procured.
So far 80 disputes have been settled through settlements
“So far, around 80 disputes have been settled through settlements,” says the ministry’s response, which is also available to the German Press Agency. The federal government has won eight cases with a total value of around 50 million euros and lost two cases with a value of 230,000 euros. In total, the federal government has paid out around 1.4 billion euros as part of the special purchasing procedure (“open house procedure”).
With regard to the ongoing proceedings, the ministry explained that if “a claim as a result of a judgment” is currently to be expected, this would be covered by remaining expenditure in the budget.
Department head Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had recently promised to review the procurement of masks during the Corona period. The reason for this was also criticism from the Federal Audit Office of the ministry’s actions under Lauterbach’s predecessor Spahn. The authority complained that 5.7 billion protective masks were purchased in 2020 alone, but only 2 billion of them were distributed – 1.7 billion of them in Germany.
Source: Stern

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