Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday defended the city’s coronavirus contract-vetting process, despite a $91.5 million order placed with a Brooklyn medical supply shop with a shaky financial record and an inability to deliver on its promises.
“I can’t emphasize enough … that it was touch and go for days and weeks,” de Blasio said, claiming that the city’s teams always managed to stay a step ahead of the need for PPE on the front lines. “I assure you, there were plenty of checks and balances involved, but they had to come up with the materials.”
The mayor’s comments came in response to a question from Crain’s about whether the city should tighten its processes selecting vendors in light of a large order with a Bushwick storefront medical-supply shop that failed to deliver any of the 7.9 million gowns it promised to procure.
It was the largest PPE order the city placed. First-time contractor Woodhull Medical Supplies, which had a history of tax woes and other financial issues, also came up short on the 500,000 masks the city ordered, providing about half that number.
