Procurement of medical supplies

[kadee79]

Can someone please explain this to me?...how did this happen?

Administration officials leaped into the fray late, then embarked on a voracious spending spree. Though U.S. federal agencies made a small number of relatively modest purchases before the second half of March, the government has ordered more than $600 million worth of masks since then. 
Large U.S. companies such as Honeywell and 3M have received the biggest orders, but the Trump administration also has signed high-dollar deals with third-party vendors selling masks for many times the standard price. 
The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded a $55 million contract for N95s this month to Panthera Worldwide LLC, which is in the business of tactical training. One of its owners said last year that Panthera’s parent company had not had any employees since May 2018, according to sworn testimony. 
It also has no history of manufacturing or procuring medical equipment, according to a review of records produced as a result of legal disputes involving the company and its affiliates. 
Panthera Worldwide’s parent company filed for bankruptcy last fall, and the LLC is no longer recognized in Virginia — where it has its main office — following nonpayment of fees, which according to Virginia code results in “the existence of a limited liability company” being “automatically canceled.” 
James V. Punelli, one of the company’s executives, said he is working his military contacts to obtain the masks. “We’ve done DoD medical training over the years and through those contacts with that community were brought sources of supply in order to assist in the COVID-19 response,” Punelli said in a text message to The Washington Post, referring to the Defense Department. “We made the connection with FEMA and offered these supplies to them.” 
Asked about delivery of the masks, Punelli said: “We will provide these masks before May 1 for certain, in full and with a very high-quality product.” He said the company is registered as an LLC in Delaware and allowed its Virginia registration to lapse “because we’re not doing business in Virginia.” … 
The FEMA contract with Panthera, which was awarded without competitive bidding, has a start date of April 1, according to a summary. Lizzie Litzow, a FEMA spokeswoman, said the Panthera contract is for 10 million masks, adding, “Panthera is not a manufacturer, they are a distributor of N95 masks.” 
The price that FEMA is paying Panthera per mask, about $5.50, is significantly higher than what the government pays companies such as 3M, which charges as little as 63 cents per N95 mask, with an average cost of about $1.50 for more advanced models, according to a price index. Prestige Ameritech, the largest domestic mask manufacturer, is charging FEMA about 80 cents per mask for the government’s order of 12 million N95 respirators, part of a $9.5 million contract that started April 7. 
Beyond the premium the federal government is paying to Panthera, the decision to award a contract to an insolvent organization with no apparent expertise in the given field struck experts as unusual.

www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-trump-masks-contracts-prices/2020/04/15/9c186276-7f20-11ea-8de7-9fdff6d5d83e_story.html

[thyme4change]

Corruption.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

[haapai]

Dash.

[busymom]

Probably a personal friend of that guy in the White House.  A kickback or several wouldn't surprise me, either.

[kadee79]

So....how much will we (taxpayers) be willing to spend starting next year to investigate & prosecute all these corrupt actions going on now?  

Is DT allowed to pardon anyone prior to them being charged?

[busymom]

Frankly, I think we should prosecute him, AND his kids, but wait until he's out of the White House.  Hopefully, we'll have a Democratic president at that point, so we won't have to worry about excessive pardons.

[Deleted]

In the medical products industry a lot of customers form buying groups to leverage their combined size and then negotiate contracts with large medical device suppliers for better pricing.

With Covid 19 we negated our demand size advantage and created competition at the Fed/State level with each other to ensure higher prices.

What a colossal fuck up of epic proportion for patients/taxpayers.