ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s Division of Emergency Management stiffed a private contractor for some $4.4 million in COVID-19 test kits during the state’s first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, a new lawsuit claims.
The suit, announced Thursday, says the state agreed to order some 600,000 test kits in March 2020 — a time when public health officials were still scrambling to respond to the potentially deadly virus. Despite emails from the state that appear to confirm the purchase, though, the Division of Emergency Management ultimately accepted and paid for only a third of the tests.
“Everyone, from individuals to the smallest of small businesses to the largest of entities like the state of Florida, is bound to honor the contracts they sign,” read a statement by attorneys John Morgan and Thomas Cargill, whose Morgan & Morgan Business Trial Group filed the lawsuit. “Our client expended considerable resources and effort to fulfill two huge COVID-19 test orders during a time when those critically needed tests were in short supply. … We are ready to fight to compel the Department of Emergency Management to uphold their end of the bargain.”
