Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive chamber spent $452.8 million on COVID-19 equipment of which only 3 of the 247,343 items were distributed.
April 13, 2025
In the early stages of the pandemic the Executive Chamber (not the usual Department of Health) made purchases guided by McKinsey & Co when procuring these items. Department of Health is who would normally be responsible for this sort procurement would not have input in the ordering despite being responsible for the way it was managed afterwards. This resulted in over 247,000 DME (durable medical equipment) items like ventilators, CPAP machines and oxygen concentrators sitting unused in warehouses, with 90% of them needing maintenance or upkeep.
Within that $450+ million 4 of the 5 credit card transactions sampled totaling $329,790 DOH could not provide proof of delivery for 140 DME items totaling $312,644.
“Of the total DME available for use (including pre-COVID-19 inventory), only 324 items were distributed during the public health emergency, and only three from the 247,343 DME purchased during COVID-19.”
— Page 2 / [Audit Highlights]
“From four out of five credit card transactions sampled worth $329,790, we found that DOH could not provide proof of delivery for 140 pieces of DME totaling $312,644.”
— Page 1 / [Audit Highlights]
Read the states release here https://www.osc.ny.gov/state-agencies/audits/2025/04/11/state-public-health-emergency-medical-stockpile
Read the full audit here https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/state-agencies/audits/pdf/sga-2025-23s14.pdf