FRANKFURT, May 29 — Prosecutors in several German regions have launched probes of companies offering free Covid-19 tests after news reports said that some were padding their numbers to claim more money from the government. Prosecutors raided a company in the northwestern city of Bochum yesterday,...
File photo of people queueing to get into the Ice Sport Stadium in Frankfurt on May 19, 2021, after being evacuated following a 500 kg WWII bomb find in the area. — AFP picFRANKFURT, May 29 — Prosecutors in several German regions have launched probes of companies offering free Covid-19 tests after news reports said that some were padding their numbers to claim more money from the government.
Prosecutors raided a company in the northwestern city of Bochum yesterday, according to the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, while farther north in Luebeck, prosecutors have opened a fraud probe, the WirtschaftsWoche weekly said. In Cologne, authorities carried out a surprise control of a testing centre, and the city of Munster has revoked the license of a company that operates around 50 testing centres. In an effort to boost Covid-19 testing, the German government made testing free several weeks ago, reimbursing companies up to €18 for each test conducted. But according to a joint investigation by several media companies, the testing centres do not have to furnish any documents to prove how many people they’ve tested when filing for government compensation and several have been inflating the figures. “They just have to send the number of tests , without any proof, and they are wired the money soon after,” according to a joint investigation by
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