German
Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/232, pp. 29854-29855.
Frau
President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
In the last
years, we have not heard much from the Linke that was reasonable.
Helin Evrim Sommer (Linke):
Shamelessness!
At this point,
I might want – Frau Sommer, listen for once – to expressly thank you
Helin Evrim Sommer (Linke): No,
thanks!
Jan Korte (Linke): That is the worst
that you can do!
that you have
brought this theme to the daily order; since it is extremely important.
The mask
theme already for long occupies us. We have put quite a number of inquiries to
the government. Not much came from the House of Spahn – just a lot of hot air:
The parliamentary inquiries were mostly put off by State Secretary Weiss. We
here have received no answers from the Federal government.
If it is desired
to learn something more of this entire mask affair, it must be researched,
Tino Sorge (CDU/CSU): Hui, you have researched!
and my
delegation has researched: We have contacted suppliers, we have had informants,
we have had informants – pay attention – in the Federal government, from your
legal counsel Ernst & Young, and here documents have come to light of day
which are seriously burdensome and seriously shameful for this Federal
government.
Let us look
at how the masks have been procured: A year ago, in March-April of last year,
contracts were concluded with firms like Lufthansa, BASF, Otto, etc. The
contracts are here submitted. It is a 16-page contract which ordinarily has
been concluded.
From this
research and other contracts has emerged other contracts with a FIEGE Logistik
Stiftung & Co. KG, which then have been assigned to a FIEGE International
Beteilungs-GmbH, a klitschig [half-baked]
GmbH, abbreviated FIB, which before termination of contract received transfers
to account of 40 million euros. This is an unparalleled scandal, Herr Spahn. These
contracts have been concluded. Here are two sheets of paper for a procurement
volume of over half a billion euros. Here, in a Wild West manner, were
contracts concluded where not even a business stamp was present; which here was
completed with a hand-written “FIB GmbH”. It is disgraceful to here have opened
wide the door to fraud.
I ask myself:
Why at all have the FIB GmbH or FIEGE been selected? Herr Spahn, is it thereby
connected to that here exist personal acquaintances, that it is your
neighboring constituency? The FIEGE Logistik certainly has no experience at all
in the logistics which are demanded here – where it is about flying in
protective equipment –, has no aircraft of its own. A skeleton agreement
concluded on March 31, 2020, is assigned to the FIB. Then three days later on
April 2, 2020, a one-time price discount of 10 cents was agreed to.
In conversations
with suppliers it was made clear to me that it is customary when an
intermediary still wants to earn, that it occurs in 10 cent increments. Here I
ask myself: Who herein still earned? The volume of these FIEGE contracts alone,
of these skeleton contracts, is 545 million euros. The conditions are a dream: Performance site: Shanghai; no freight costs; no clearance need be made; one need
not trouble oneself with a certificate concerning how the article comes into
the country. FFP2 masks were agreed. As far as I know, only a quite small fraction
of those which were flown in by the Federal government were in fact FFP2 masks.
The problem, in which oneself has come forward as a marketer, has been avoided.
Suppliers
confirm to me that the market in March-April of last year for FFP2 masks –
cleared, including freight – and import turnover tax yielded 2 euros maximum.
These masks, which the Federal government procured and brought into
circulation, were defective, grossly defective. Especially defective was particle
passage in a rapid test: 6 percent was permitted, the masks as a rule exhibiting
around 15 percent.
In addition,
ever again emerges a name, a little shop in Switzerland, Emix, with which the
Federal government has concluded billions in contracts. Here I also want to for
once gladly look behind the corridors and peek at what has in fact happened
there.
As a
counter-move, the Federal government has published an open house procedure. 100
suppliers are today still not paid. A billion euros are here still in dispute.
Once again, use has been made of your partners EY Law so as to ward off this
demand. Here, the livelihoods of small suppliers are in play, those who have
pledged all so as to help out the Federal government in a crisis and to procure
protective equipment. With a legal subterfuge, you now draw yourself back into
a Fixgeschäft [purchase for delivery
at a fixed time]. I say to you: With the documents which have come out of your
house, this Fixgeschäft is losing its
balance.
In addition:
How do these procurement chains work? Ever again emerges a name: Monika Hohlmeier,
the daughter of Strauß. I recall just the Amigo Affair: Oneself known, oneself
helped. That has obviously remained stuck together. Protocols concerning that
have been submitted to me. Frau Hohlmeier recommends Emmi Zeulner, who in
addition has good contacts at the Federal ministries. Thus are curtailed the
procurement contracts.
I say to you:
The fish have been partly selected. The CDU has already separated itself from
some its members who have personally enriched themselves, or from those who are
under suspicion.
Paul Ziemiak (CDU/CSU): Do you have something
to say on the theme?
Yet the fish
always stinks from the head and here in this house there is much too much a
smell of putrefaction.
We here have
stirred up a wasps’ nest.
Vice-president Petra Pau: Herr
Keuter.
I come to an
end, Frau President. – I say to you: We will still need to work on this matter.
It cries out for an investigating committee – unfortunately after the Bundestag
election. I am sure: This is not only a case for the investigating committee,
but also for the state attorney.
Our chairman said: We will hunt them.
Vice-president Petra Pau: Come now please to a conclusion.
Yes. – Herr Federal Minister, now you know what hunt means.
Tino Sorge (CDU/CSU): I believe you were never on a hunt! That's why you speak such nonsense!
False!
[trans: tem]
