Probably not the best idea to give a $69 million contract based on a tweet:
An engineer who received a $69.1 million contract from New York state, after replying to one of President Trump’s tweets, never provided the ventilators, BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday.
thehill.com
An engineer who received a $69.1 million contract from New York state, after replying to one of
President Trump’s tweets, never provided the ventilators,
BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday.
New York state signed a contract with electrical engineer Yaron Oren-Pines in late March for 1,450 ventilators at a price of $47,656 per ventilator, which is about triple the standard retail price of high-end versions, a state official told BuzzFeed News. But none of the ventilators ever showed up.
The state official told BuzzFeed News that the state entered the contract with Oren-Pines because the White House coronavirus task force recommended him. The contract has since been terminated, and New York is scrambling to retrieve its money.
“The guy was recommended to us by the White House coronavirus task force because they were doing business with him, as well,” the official said. “I think everyone was genuinely trying to help each other out and get supplies.”
The payment to Oren-Pines was the largest single payment made by the state’s health department under Gov.
Andrew Cuomo’s (D) executive order to speed up retrieving medical equipment, according to BuzzFeed News. Officials declined to say how much of the payment the state was able to get back.