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The U.S. has been spending billions to fight the coronavirus.
Until now it was hidden in hard-to-use gov’t websites. So @derekwillis and I organized everything the U.S. bought, (including live monkeys) and who it’s buying from.
And we made it searchable https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus-contracts/
Until now it was hidden in hard-to-use gov’t websites. So @derekwillis and I organized everything the U.S. bought, (including live monkeys) and who it’s buying from.
And we made it searchable https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus-contracts/
So far, the U.S. has committed to spend at least $13.8 billion on more than 6,000 contracts from about 3,400 vendors so far.
We’ve bought all sorts of things: masks, test kits, ventilators, hydroxychloroquine.
Even monkeys...
Even monkeys...
The National Institutes of Health spent close to $2 million to ship live monkeys. That’s under the contracting category “live animal renting.” https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus-contracts/contracts/HHSN263201600012I
Notice that this is an "open ended" contract. That means there are no limits. The @NIH could just keep pumping more money and getting more and more monkeys from this company.
So far, the government committed the most money to buying medical and surgical supplies. Here’s a list of the top things we’ve been buying...
You can see the biggest contracts, the vendors getting the most money and the agencies doling out that money...
When you get there, there’s a lot of jargon, so let’s break it down…
Some contracts are “sole-sourced” which usually means the government decided one company was the only one that could provide the goods.
Some are “not competed” which means the government gave the contract without asking multiple companies to bid against each other for it.
Some are “not competed” which means the government gave the contract without asking multiple companies to bid against each other for it.
The government even keeps track of the kinds of companies it contracts with. For example, today’s ProPublica investigation is about how it gave $1.8 billion in contracts to 345 companies who had no previous federal contracts.
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-closer-look-at-federal-covid-contractors-reveals-inexperience-fraud-accusations-and-a-weapons-dealer-operating-out-of-someones-house
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-closer-look-at-federal-covid-contractors-reveals-inexperience-fraud-accusations-and-a-weapons-dealer-operating-out-of-someones-house
There's much, much more in this app! We hope local journalists dig in and find stories in their own states
https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus-contracts/vendors/states/VA
https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus-contracts/vendors/states/VA
My colleagues at @propublica have already written some incredible stories about federal contracting during the pandemic using this data, including this one that published a couple of days ago by @yjtorbati and @derekwillis: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-feds-gave-a-former-white-house-official-3-million-to-supply-masks-to-navajo-hospitals-some-may-not-work
Explore the app, and if you find something super interesting, please DM my editor @schwanksta! https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus-contracts/
We’re going to keep digging into it. Want to see the stories we find? Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter: http://go.propublica.org/bigstory-social
