3M billed government $7.63 for 85-cent earplugs. It now has $1 billion COVID contract

Inept and probably criminal any way you look at it.



3M billed government $7.63 for 85-cent earplugs. It now has $1 billion COVID contract
By Tara Copp
May 20, 2020 03:31 PM
A former FBI agent responsible for investigating contracts after Hurricane Katrina warns that the more than 20,400 contracts awarded by the U.S. to date for COVID-19 supplies is at risk for waste and fraud. By Kevin Keister | Tara Copp


The company that has been awarded the largest single COVID-19 federal contract once boasted it charged the Defense Department $7.63 for earplugs that cost 85 cents a pair to produce.

That company, 3M, was awarded a $1 billion contract on April 15 for “medical and surgical instruments, equipment and supplies,” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The IDIQ contract — “indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity” — was awarded without taking competing bids from other vendors.

It is also the largest federal contract 3M has been awarded among at least 47 others it has signed with various federal agencies to produce protective gear for the COVID-19 outbreak such as medical gloves, gowns and particularly respirator masks. The masks are critically needed for doctors, nurses, first responders and essential workers.

snip//

The 3M contract is just one of more than 20,400 contracts for pandemic-related supplies or services that the U.S. government has signed since March 13, when the White House declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus.

More than 6,000 of those contracts, worth a total of $8.5 billion, like the 3M contract, were awarded without seeking competing bids, according to the Federal Procurement Data System, a government database that tracks all federal spending.

more...

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/coronavirus/article242868916.html