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Almost no face mask, very few fans – the first wave of Covid caught Switzerland off guard. A working group now names prices and suppliers in a report.
Since the summer there were finally enough masks in Switzerland: an employee of Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe BVB distributed protective masks.
Photo: Georgios Kefalas (Keystone) KEYSTONE
They weren’t the only ones making millions. But they were the only ones who made headlines because they bought luxury cars Ferrari and Bentley. Two young entrepreneurs, not known by name, managed to bring protective masks from China to Switzerland on a large scale with their trading company Emix Trading AG at the start of the Corona crisis. Not everyone was able to do that, and it is also clear that very early, already in early March, they submitted their offers to the federal government in accordance with the rules.
In a report The federal government now carefully lists who contributed and what to remedy the acute shortage of protective masks of spring in Switzerland.
Masks bought for 23 million francs
Emix merchants, domiciled in the canton of Zug, are at the top. The federal government removed their masks in March and April of this year alone at a total price of around 23 million francs.
Emix was awarded the first bid in the first week of March when it delivered 50,000 of the so-called FFP2 masks for CHF 445,000 in Switzerland. The unit price at that time was 8.90 francs. In the second week of March, the same distributors delivered 400,000 respiratory masks (TE YIN FFP2 NR designation, without valve) at even higher unit prices of CHF 9.50 and CHF 9.90 respectively. That’s up to 2 francs more than what other comparable skins cost at the time. The total price that Emix was able to pocket here: 3.96 million francs.
FFP2 mask with a higher degree of protection than a hygienic mask: before the Corona crisis it cost between 1.20 francs and a good 2 francs. During the first spring wave, the federal government paid up to 9.90 francs each.
Photo: Karl Schöndorfer (Keystone)
For another batch of a good 460,000 masks, enterprising merchants were able to record an additional revenue of 4.37 million francs in the same week. In addition, a week later another 9 million francs arrived for hygienic masks (type II / IIIR), plus another 5 million for 582,500 FFP2 masks.
Before the crisis, the unit prices for this type of mask were between CHF 1.20 and CHF 2.35. It turns out the trading company was able to deliver about three times as many masks than a Defense Department spokeswoman said in the summer. At that moment, he spoke of half a million masks that Emix had delivered.
Procurement Coordinator and Brigadier Markus Näf told a press conference Thursday morning that Emix was able to deliver earlier and faster than other suppliers, and with the desired quality. The company also supplied other national and foreign clients.
Sellers can set conditions
Other statements in the report also show how extraordinary the situation was in spring. The applicable procurement instructions could only have been met to a limited extent, procurement coordinator Markus Näf and the chief of staff of the Corona Procurement Coordination Task Force at the Department of Defense (DDPS) Eric Signer write in their report. In this tense situation, unconditional advances and advances were necessary that would otherwise be unthinkable at the federal level. “If possible, advance payments were avoided,” writes Näf. The reason: according to the Financial Budget Law, no initial payments can be made without collateral.
The Federal Council subsequently approved this approach with an amendment to the Covid 19 regulation. The market situation for personal protection products at the time was an “absolute seller market,” write Näf and Signer. That means: in meiner derart extremenorth Market situation can the Seller It almost only determines the conditions in which you want to sell, because the demand vastly exceeds the supply.
In the acquisition of protective masks, “the usual procedures failed,” the report continues, for example to give an international bank a performance guarantee or to transfer the money to a blocked account and only release it once the goods have been duly accepted in Switzerland. The reason for this was that the sellers had not given their consent or the time was simply too short.
Bern companies also benefited
After all: emergency procurement, which was run by the army pharmacy, which had grown rapidly in terms of personnel, was under the constant surveillance of the Swiss Federal Audit Office. It was randomly verified if the merchandise delivered in the warehouses corresponded to the orders and if the payments corresponded to orders, contracts and deliveries.
For around 27 million francs, the federal government also purchased masks of various kinds of protection from the Berne trading company Anel AG, while the Berne company Gribi AG was also able to sell surgical masks for around 19 million francs during the first wave Corona.
When the Federal Council began to relax the Covid protection measures in late April / early May, the Neuhausen am Rheinfall International Bandage Factory (IVF Hartmann AG) was also able to sell hygienic masks for 11.5 million francs.
Thanks to international relations, the Swiss Red Cross was also able to supply masks and medical products worth more than 15 million francs.
Almost 2000 fans
The army pharmacy was also commissioned to purchase ventilators for the health sector. The federal government bought 1,800 units of the military device type from the manufacturer Hamilton. The total price for this was 49 million francs. There were also 150 other pieces for a good 2.6 million francs.
As it turned out later, too many devices were bought here. Some of these were returned to the federal government by the cantons, who in turn purchased the devices.
Financial control writes in its last October report: «The army pharmacy orders for 571 million francs are based on credit. Covid19 Ordinance of CHF 2.55 billion in mid-October weitem no outside.» Medical products ordered on behalf of the Federal Office of Public Healthbe medals, seien almost all delivered. Goods needme Space; the storage capacity of the material would have can be extended with corresponding costs Have to.
