The Smithsonian blew through $7.5 million of pandemic spending with dodgy purchases of face masks and sanitizer and the salary of doctor who barely treated COVID patients, a damning report says.
A federal government inspector says the world-famous museum and research center spent nearly $1.7 million of those funds on overpriced pandemic-related items without shopping around for a better price.
The bungled spending included $28,634 on water fountains at the National Zoo that did nothing to prevent the virus, and a $214,465-a-year doctor who barely saw any coronavirus patients.
The Smithsonian did not answer DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
The Smithsonian’s poor tracking of COVID money means it might not get a dime in the next crisis
A tourist visits the Smithsonian’s National Zoo during the pandemic in August 2020
The overspend spotlights how government departments and institutions spent taxpayer-funded CARES Act funds chaotically after COVID swept the US, claiming 1.2 million lives and sending the nation into lockdown.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general in its report said the museum ‘did not consistently spend CARES Act funds in accordance with applicable laws, policies, and procedures.’
Inspector General Christi Grimm
The museum received $7.5 million in pandemic relief funds, but was not able to justify $1,673,577 of that spending, in some cases because it overpaid for items because it did not shop around, the report says.
This included $502,738 spent on face masks and hand sanitizers, says the 39-page report.
Another $28,999 was spent on manual water fountains, printing supplies, a phone case, and a fire safety guide, which did not qualify for the funding.
The water fountains for the zoo’s Asia trail were supposed to be operated by sensor, so customers would not touch the devices and spread the virus.
But museum officials soon realized there was no electricity in that part of the zoo, and the fountains were switched to regular manual fountains, which did not qualify for funding.
The auditor also focussed on a $214,465-a-year doctor who was hired at the start of the pandemic in July 2020.
The Smithsonian did not shop around for the best price when it bought masks and sanitizer
The doctor’s boss estimated that 95 percent of their workload was related to the pandemic.
But on inspection, it was revealed that only 6 percent of their appointments were for COVID patients.
The Smithsonian needs to work harder to justify its purchases, track taxpayer-funded items and log transactions, says the report.
‘Failure to fully address these issues could impact the Smithsonian’s ability to effectively steward future emergency funding,’ it says.
It’s just the latest example of COVID funds going awry.
Investigators found that $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon for pandemic medical gear was instead mostly funneled to defense contractors and used to make things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.
An AP investigation last year found that fraudulent and iffy use of COVID cash was the ‘greatest grift in US history.’
Scammers potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent.
Combined, the loss represented 10 percent of the $4.2 trillion the US government had disbursed in COVID relief aid.
