Report: NYC Auctions $224 Million in COVID Supplies for $500K

New York City officials sold $224 million worth COVID-19 medical equipment at auction for $500,000, which included never-used ventilators.

Many of the supplies are brand-new and unopened. The taxpayer receives a return of five dollars per dollar. Many of the items are not selling. According To The City.

The ventilators (3,000 total) were purchased by a scrap metal dealer for less than $25,000. They were ordered by Bill de Blasio, then-mayor of New York, in April 2020 for $12,000,000. They were sold to scrap metal dealers for less than $25,000 De Blasio referred to their purchase as a “story about doing the impossible.”

To move the devices that were not being used, it took 28 truckloads. “non-functioning medical equipment.”

President Joe Biden will be the auctioneer Plan to let go The COVID public health emergency declared by the federal government on May 11.

“Thankfully, New Yorkers and our heroic frontline medical workers came together to avert some of the worst-case scenarios,” Nick Benson (a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services) spoke about the auctioned goods.

Officials in the city were concerned that the public might find out about the low-cost auctions. New Yorkers would be the first to ask. “about the city’s over-buying during COVID,” According to an internal email received by the government The City.

The city was sold goods by companies at high prices, and the prices are continuing to drop. The City reported:

LVLM distribution, a Pennsylvania limited-liability corporation, received $5.6 million. “hospital isolation gowns/masks,” DCAS sold 97,850 gowns last month for $1,000. DCAS received zero bids and put the same lot back up last week, dropping it to $280.

It’s only a fraction of one penny per gown.

DCAS signed an original $5.7 million contract to purchase millions of isolation dresses from Faded Royalty, a Jersey City-based men’s fashion shop. The final payment to the firm was $263,000, for any gowns they were able deliver. DCAS began selling them off last autumn.

In the first auction, DCAS tried to sell about 176,000 Faded Royalty gowns for $64,000—about $2.75 per gown. It’s not clear what happened since DCAS officials wouldn’t say, but at a second auction, DCAS’s new opening bid was $1,000 for 98,175 Faded Royalty gowns—about a penny per gown.