Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) sent a press release to the country on May 6, 2021. At that time the corona vaccine was scarce, time was pressing. So it is understandable that Holetschek’s communication called for “more flexibility when ordering” the vaccine. This requirement is now almost half a year old, a long time ago, actually no longer worth mentioning. If it weren’t for another letter that was sent on May 6, 2021, from the Procurement Chamber of Southern Bavaria to the Ministry of Health. And the chamber would not criticize what Holetschek had demanded for his company on the same day: flexibility in orders. The chamber’s letter suggests that the ministry has interpreted the order rules so flexibly that the taxpayer could have suffered millions in damage.
It is not about the vaccine in this case, which has only now become known, but about corona rapid tests. The Ministry of Health ordered a total of 5.3 million such tests from Siemens Healthcare GmbH in February 2021. A deal that the Procurement Chamber of Southern Bavaria, which is part of the government of Upper Bavaria, has checked and came to the conclusion that the ministry had violated public procurement law on several occasions. That emerges from the chamber decision, 24 pages that the Süddeutsche Zeitung are present. First had the news portal Regensburg digital reported about it. The matter was initiated by a company that had not been taken into account in the award procedure.
The case could have been expensive business for the Free State in two respects. First, because there could have been at least one provider who could have delivered the tests more cheaply than Siemens Healthcare GmbH. And secondly, there is now the question of whether the Ministry of Health is threatened with claims for damages. When asked, a spokeswoman said that the ministry did not assume that such claims exist. In general, one considers the decision of the chamber to be “wrong from the point of view of public procurement law”. The ministry has therefore lodged a complaint against the decision with the Supreme Regional Court. The court has not yet decided on this.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been numerous easing of public procurement law
The matter started in January 2021. At that time, the Ministry of Health asked about rapid tests. Although several companies announced that their tests would be approved soon and promised that they would be able to deliver quickly afterwards, the ministry only sought offers from three companies. The ministry explains this with the urgency in view of the infection situation at the time. In fact, since the beginning of the pandemic, numerous easing of the procurement law had been created in order to be able to procure masks or other protective material as quickly and unbureaucratically as possible. From the point of view of the public procurement tribunal, however, this business was a bit too unbureaucratic.
According to the decision, the Chamber assumes “that the inclusion of further companies would not have led to a significant delay in the award decision”. As far as the price of its rapid tests is concerned, Siemens Healthcare GmbH does not provide any information when asked and refers to the ongoing procedure. According to Regensburg digital the tests of a company that were not awarded the contract cost 3.20 euros each. If you add a list of the rapid tests ordered by the Free State between February and July 2021 and their costs, the tests by Siemens Healthcare GmbH could have been so much more expensive that the bottom line would be damage of more than ten million euros.
The ministry describes this bill as incorrect. You have to consider that the price quoted by the company that was not taken into account comes from March 2021 – but the award was awarded in February. In addition, a spokesman referred to the uncertainty of a market that did not even exist at the time. The company that complained to the public procurement tribunal was not able to deliver “the required quantities at the required time with tests of comparable quality and the necessary special approval”.