They are fortunate to have such incredibly competent managers - from the Los Angeles Times:
New cost details emerge in California’s secretive coronavirus masks deal with Chinese company
Advisors to Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed to pay Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD $3.30 for each mask the company made under a coronavirus response contract totaling almost $1 billion that has been kept under seal for the past month.
But invoices, emails and other documents obtained by The Times suggest the deal was still in the process of being vetted by state officials when Newsom suggested it was complete during a national TV broadcast on April 7.
The price per mask was revealed in a document provided by the California state treasurer’s office, which was responsible for the release of the funds. However, it lists only the sale of coveted N95 masks, those considered to provide the most protection, and not the cost of traditional surgical masks BYD has also sold to the state.
And why this is not such a good idea?
Sergio Fernandez de Cordova, the chairman of a New York media nonprofit group that is working with the government consulting firm Raymond Associates to secure better mask deals for government agencies...
He said with the amount of money California can muster, the state could have propped up its own factories in the state, employed Californians out of work and made large quantities of similar masks for “easily under a dollar.”
“The state could have launched 190 new companies around this,” Fernandez de Cordova said. “Pandemic times lead to pandemic decisions, which are not usually well thought out.”
DOH! Stupid bureaucrat - they probably get all hot and bothered when they receive emails from Nigerian Princes. And they have the gall to ask the Federal government for a handout. That is our tax dollars. Let them sit and stew in their own messes - they screwed it up, let them deal with it.
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