Next blow for Spahn: Court of Auditors criticizes the chaotic procurement of masks

The Court of Auditors issues a complaint to the Federal Ministry of Health.

The background is the "lack of a systematic volume control".

Berlin - Further criticism of the Federal Ministry of Health from Jens Spahn * (CDU). The Federal Audit Office criticized the central procurement of scarce corona protective masks in the early phase of the pandemic. However, it should be recognized, as it were, with what great effort it helped to avert an emergency in the health care system in the spring of last year. So it is written in a test report to the Bundestag. A complaint is distributed due to the "lack of systematic quantity control". The inventories resulting from “massive over-procurement” and the budget and personnel capacities used were “not used economically to effectively combat pandemics,” it continues.

The contracted total amount from all procurement channels exceeds with 5.8 billion protective masks even an annual requirement of 4.7 billion masks calculated by the ministry “on the basis of extraneous assumptions” by 23 percent, according to the report.

It is available to the German Press Agency, and

reported on it.

In addition to the procurement expenditure of 6.3 billion euros, the costs of 320 million euros so far, for example for transport, storage, quality checks and external advice, could increase further due to legal disputes and disposal costs.

Court of Auditors criticizes chaotic mask procurement in the early phase of the corona pandemic

According to the report, stocks totaled 2.4 billion masks on April 1, 2021. "Large parts of these are considered to be in dispute because they have not passed quality checks." The Federal Court of Auditors called on the ministry to check a "timely distribution of quality-checked and usable stocks for fighting pandemics" - especially because after the expiry date, further expenditures for disposal incurred. It is also critical to examine whether a physical stockpiling of protective masks for the healthcare system would be expedient and economical for future pandemic preparedness at the federal level.

According to the report, the ministry referred in its statement to the crisis situation in spring 2020. The federal government reacted early to support the federal states and the health system. The Bundestag committees had been fully informed. The procurement was planned and monitored centrally on the basis of lists and databases. It was only in connection with the distribution that it emerged that the federal states had procured masks themselves and only wanted to purchase smaller quantities.

The Federal Audit Office recently reproached the Ministry of Health for having paid pharmacies significantly more than necessary for the distribution of protective masks at times. A “massive overcompensation from tax revenues” has therefore also occurred in the case of compensation payments for hospitals.