Australian government paid millions for unusable Covid face masks from obscure online retailer

Documents show extraordinary pandemic deals left Australia with tens of millions of masks that could not be used, at a huge cost to taxpayers.Documents show extraordinary pandemic deals left Australia with tens of millions of masks that could not be used, at a huge cost to taxpayers.

A spokesperson for Hunt said many unsolicited approaches were made to the minister’s office during the pandemic and that it was standard practice for them to be referred to the department for proper assessment and scrutiny.It is understood the current government has not initiated any process to recover the money or request replacement masks, but is exploring whether it can do so.

The whistleblower is understood to have raised questions over the tax arrangements for the money made from the deal.A spokesperson for Ricky Neumann said the companies had “always complied with our obligations and deny any wrongdoing”. In response to the Guardian’s latest questions, a spokesperson for PPE Medpro, who said they also had permission to speak on behalf of Mone and Barrowman, said the Australia contracts were “completely unconnected”. They said PPE Medpro had “successfully fulfilled” its order to supply 210m face masks for the UK NationalThey added that “Neumer was not known to PPE Medpro at the time of the contracts and was not part of the consortium which supplied PPE to the UK Government”.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

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