(The Center Square) – More than $5 million of personal protective equipment paid for by Oklahoma never made it to the state and purchasing protocols violated the state's constitution, according to an audit of the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) released Wednesday by State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd.
The report showed $2.3 million was paid to seven different vendors for various services and supplies. Another $2.1 million was paid to PPE Supplies LLC for N95 masks.
The attorney general's office has filed legal action against PPE Supplies LLC, asking that $1.8 million be returned to the state.
"The state alleges Casey Bradford, who is co-manager and an owner of PPE Supplies LLC, misrepresented facts to the state that if he were paid up front for half the cost of one purchase order, he could expedite the shipment of protective masks for delivery to the state within two weeks," the auditors wrote. "After OSDH cancelled all four orders, officials asked for the $2.125 million deposit back. Bradford has only refunded a partial payment of $300,000."
The attorney general's office also filed a court action against A&K Distributors, which was paid $890,417 for 38 ventilators, according to the audit. The state cancelled the order but the company delivered some of them anyway.
The OSDH returned the ventilators but has not received a refund. State officials said an additional $133,166 was paid to A&K for personal protective equipment but there was no documentation found that showed it was received.
Prepaying for purchases violates the state's constitution, according to the audit.
"There is also nothing noted in the Oklahoma Emergency Management Act (OEMA) or Catastrophic Health Emergency Powers Act (CHEPA) that allowed the Governor to waive this constitutional limitation," auditors wrote.
Forty-two of the purchases exceeded an executive order issued by Gov. Kevin Stitt that capped on-time purchases at $250,000, the auditors said in the report.
The former secretary of health and mental health services did not have the authority to delegate purchases to someone else. The audit included a memo that showed Jerome Loughridge authorized an employee to oversee the purchases.
The OSDH also did not "have adequate inventory controls in place that would provide reasonable assurance that goods received are accurately recorded in the system," according to the audit.
Stitt issued a statement on the audit Wednesday afternoon and said his intention was to keep hospitals open and frontline workers safe.
"I issued executive orders to get [personal protective equipment] to our state as quickly as possible," Stitt said. "Looking back today, we can acknowledge that there were technical errors while still knowing we did everything we could to protect citizens of this state during an unimaginable time."
via Oklahoma's Center Square News