The Coronavirus Testing Procurement Audit

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According to the Washington Post, according to a Maryland state audit, procurement regulations where not followed when the Maryland administration bought 500,000 COVID-19 tests from a South Korean company last year and the first batch of tests that later had to be replaced for an additional $2.5 million was not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Questions:

  1. What critical state regulation provisions were not followed, according to the audit?
  2. Given that the pandemic was a crisis situation, why are lawmakers so critical of the circumstances?
  3. Sen. Paul Pinsky, a Democrat who has questioned the procurement, is quoted as saying, ” That we spent $464,000 so he can get a photo op at the airport is unbelievable .” What is he referring to?
  4. What type of audit is this?

Source:

Witte, B. (2021). Maryland audit faults procurement of 500K virus tests. The Washington Post, April 2 (Retrievable online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/maryland-audit-faults-procurement-of-500k-virus-tests/2021/04/02/7b6e6002-9400-11eb-aadc-af78701a30ca_story.html)