The German government has received bad news at a time of difficult budget negotiations.
The Higher Regional Court in Cologne ruled in favor of a supplier of protective masks that the Federal Ministry of Health had ordered in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but which it later refused to accept or pay for. The ministry will have to pay 85 million euros ($92 million), plus 33 million euros in late payment interest.
It is possible that the resolution will have a domino effect, as there are another hundred lawsuits pending in court. If the Ministry of Health is defeated in those cases, it could face a record loss of 2,300 million euros in total.
The purchase of masks is already one of the biggest tax waste scandals in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Flashback: In March 2020, the world literally invaded the world through COVID-19. There were still months to go before there was a vaccine and medical protection devices were in short supply. Respirators that meet FFP2, KN95 or N95 standards, which are meant to offer reliable coverage, were opposed due to the virus, were desperately scarce and there was a worldwide rush to take inventory.
“China, which generated about 80% of those masks at the time, was in lockdown and had stopped its exports,” recalled Simone Borchardt, a parliamentarian from the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which led the government in “In Germany, we even developed rules on how we can wear the mask multiple times and whether it can simply be washed. It was really crazy at the time,” Borchardt said in parliament’s narrow space, the Bundestag, a debate in June.
In this situation, the then Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, proposed purchasing masks in a kind of “open house”. During this process, the relevant government company signs contracts with all interested companies so that each supplier has a chance.
Spahn had the idea that at the global mask festival he only needed to set the price high enough to ensure that Germany kept the product. Contrary to the recommendations of those responsible for his ministry, who considered a price of 3 euros (about 3. 25 dollars today) for a suitable mask, Spahn set the price at 4. 50 euros for the FFP2 mask and 0. 60 euros for the surgical mask. The reaction exceeded expectations and, in the end, the ministry ended up with orders for 5. 7 billion masks.
“The value has been set too high,” said Martina Stamm-Fibich of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which at the time was Spahn’s CDU coalition partner and most recently leads Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government. In my opinion, this already raises the question of how it is possible to calculate values without taking into account market developments and who bears political responsibility for it,” Stamm-Fibich said in the Bundestag.
Four years later, Spahn is now on the defensive: “With the knowledge I have, I would definitely make other decisions,” he admitted in the debate. “And yes, in hindsight, I cannot propose the ‘open space procedure’ in such a situation. ”
However, he says, he has to make decisions temporarily in desperate times: human lives are at stake and doctors are asking for protection.
“We bought masks. Were they expensive? Yes. Was it chaotic? Yes, it was the same for each and every country in the world,” Spahn said. “I’m sure the price wasn’t too high, but I know a lot of other people who said, ‘Buy a mask at any price. ‘”
The Ministry of Health calculated that if five million fitness professionals need two masks a day, more than 3 billion masks would be needed a year.
But in the end, 1. 7 billion of the ordered masks were distributed. By 2023, 1. 2 billion protective masks will have been destroyed because their expiration date has passed.
What Spahn did not say is that the Ministry of Health had to conclude from the beginning that it had miscalculated. The “open house” procedure ended in May 2020 and ministry officials were looking for tactics to pull out of as many contracts as possible.
An opportunity arose when some corporations failed to deliver the expected quality. In those cases, the ministry unilaterally terminated the purchase contract. The same applies to suppliers who were unable to deliver on time or who only provided the mask component on the agreed date. The purchase contracts referred to a “fixed agreement”, stating that all contractual obligations would cease after the delivery date. delivery.
But it is precisely this clause that the Cologne Higher Regional Court declared invalid. The judges found that the suppliers had suffered an “unreasonable disadvantage” and that the branch had been more flexible and then set a shorter deadline.
The Ministry of Health now needs clarification of the matter at the highest level through the Federal Court of Justice. If the court dismisses the case, Cologne’s ruling will be legally binding and will likely affect other court proceedings, with corresponding monetary consequences.
Beyond the legal fight, the political debate also continues and goes far beyond the value of medical masks. Were the government’s COVID-related measures, with their profound and widespread encroachments on basic rights, justified? What classes can we take advantage of the pandemic and what should we do in the future?
However, the parties of the ruling centre-left coalition (SPD, Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP)) have not yet agreed on the appropriate form of a reassessment. All three parties are in favor of a citizens’ reform. ‘ council. The Greens and the FDP are also pushing for the creation of a commission of inquiry in the Bundestag, which would allow lawmakers and experts to be heard and make recommendations on new procedures.
This article originally written in German.
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