Two months after Governor Gavin Newsom announced a $ 1 billion deal with Chinese car maker BYD to buy respirators, California has not yet received the much-needed N95 mask. And on Friday, state officials announced that they would give the company a second extension to fulfill its promise.

This is the latest complication in an agreement with BYD, which has a US subsidiary headquartered in Los Angeles County, to supply 300 million highly protective respirators during the COVID-19 pandemic. The electric car maker has struggled to have an N95 mask certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. BYD first failed to meet the April 30 contract deadline for its N95 mask to be certified, forcing the company to return half of California’s $ 495 million down payment.

State officials changed the agreement to grant BYD until May 31 so that the N95 mask was approved by federal regulators. The amendments allow the state to extend the deadline or for BYD to return the remaining California $ 247.5 million down payment on Friday. State officials announced Friday that they will now give BYD until June 12 to have a certified mask. The new amendment notes that if the respirator is certified by the new timeline, the country plans to buy 150 million masks, which will be shipped this month and next.

“If a vendor fails to get NIOSH certification in the new timeline, unpaid payments to the vendor will be returned to the country,” Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Emergency Services Office, said in a statement.

On Friday, BYD declined to comment on this issue.

In April, California agreed to pay $ 990 million to BYD for 300 million N95 protective masks at a cost of $ 3.30 each. Even though the price was higher than the cost of masks in the non-pandemic period, countries signed contracts during mask shortages throughout the world. Respirators filter 95% of particles, providing important protection for nurses and other important workers.

While state lawmakers said they understood the country’s desire to buy critical supplies, the governor received a bipartisan backlash over how his government handled the agreement.

MPs said they learned about a $ 1 billion contract at the same time as the public, when Newsom continued MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” to announce the agreement. Then, the contract itself is kept hidden for a month. The governor’s office at first refused to reveal documents for lawmakers and journalists – although government contracts are public under state law – citing fears that masks might be confiscated if the information was released.

In recent weeks, Newsom has underestimated the delay and said California taxpayers would not shell out if BYD did not arrive.

“We pay for what we get,” Newsom said on Friday. “We don’t pay for things we don’t get.”

Newsom added that the country was working with other suppliers and would “have reserves.”

In a statement last month to The Times, NIOSH said it told BYD on May 4 that on-site visits to factories and company production facilities in China had resulted in an “unacceptable” rating. The agency also said “the review of the documentation provided to NIOSH for the design, manufacture and quality inspection of the device is cause for concern.”

NIOSH declined to elaborate on the specific reasons for his refusal, saying the information was confidential under federal rules, but added in a statement that the decision was “based on a number of factors.”

BYD submitted a total of four applications for N95 respirators, according to a letter from the regulatory body. Three applications were rejected and the fourth was withdrawn, an NIOSH official told The Times.

Federal regulators did not respond to requests for comment Friday about the status of BYD mask certification.

Although the state has not yet received an N95 mask from BYD, the company has provided millions of surgical masks to California.

The state agreed to pay BYD $ 54.9 million to buy 100 million surgical masks. So far, more than 90 million have been sent to California, Newsom said. Over the next two months, BYD’s contract with California also gave the country the option to buy an additional 250 million N95 respirators for $ 825 million and 112.5 million surgical masks for $ 61.8 million.