Ordered, paid. And never received. Since April 2020, the Region has been still trying to recover the 375,373.50 euros that had been paid as an advance for the purchase of 30 ventilators: never delivered. A French court is now dealing with the matter. Because in the meantime the company that collected the Sardinian money without shipping the goods, Mag Force International, based in Aubervilliers (on the other side of the Alps, in fact) has been put into liquidation. And the recovery of the stolen goods is a matter for bankruptcy court.
This story begins as Italy fell into the nightmare of Covid. In mid-March, the numbers on the needs of the Sardinian health system to deal with that then unknown virus were made public: over 2 and a half million pairs of vinyl and nitrile gloves, 12,000 protective visors, 98,000 coveralls, 100,000 waterproof gowns, 25,000 pairs of protective goggles, 260,000 shoes, 190,000 headphones, 52,000 liters of hand cleaner, 600 dispensers, thousands of respirators, gowns, laser thermometers, 1,000 diagnostic kits, 40,000 swabs. And at least 50 ventilators.
There was no breathing apparatus. And more and more patients with bilateral pneumonia arrived in Sardinian hospitals.
So in April the civil protection of the island launches itself on the market. Because, we read in the one-year-old documents but just published on the Region's website, "in order to ensure the timely and effective overcoming of the critical context, as well as due to the aggravation of the same, the availability of lung ventilators represented at the time of the assignment an imperative and pre-eminent necessity".
On the 8th of that month the contract with the French company was signed. Which, among other things, sold field equipment and clothes for simulated warfare. The agreement on 30 machines provided for the immediate payment of 50% of the expense: on the 9th "the advance payment of 375,373.50 euros was arranged". The rest had to be credited at the time of delivery, expected within 15 days. Which never happened.
