THE House Committee on Appropriations resumed Tuesday its inquiry into the procurement processes and expenditures of the Department of Health (DOH) during the COVID-19 pandemic with Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin urging the Commission on Audit (COA) to investigate the individual unit costs of procured items, such as testing kits, suggesting that P12.8 billion might have been misappropriated.
She expressed concern that the expiring test kits, which were bought using borrowed funds, may have been distributed indiscriminately during the pandemic, given to private entities who charged the public, instead of being used for public testing for free.
Garin also asked the DOH about the circumstances where near-expiry commodities were accepted.
Former DOH Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque III replied that the pandemic qualified as an extraordinary circumstance for accepting said commodities, but ordinarily, supplies should not expire for two to three years.
Duque added that health commodities should be used within six to eight months before their expiration date.
When asked if the DOH ever received near-expiry supplies, Duque clarified that during his first term as secretary, the policy was clear against accepting near-expiry supplies. He claimed that if expiration dates were imminent, efforts were made to request replacements with longer shelf lives.
Garin also criticized the high prices of procured items such as test kits, comparing them to much lower costs in other countries for the same brand and specifications.
She emphasized that borrowing money during the pandemic and leaving the public to bear the cost was unacceptable, “You don’t use the pandemic as a reason to do corruption. and you don’t use the pandemic as a reason to abuse the government, borrow money and let the people pay.”
Committee senior vice chairperson and Marikina City Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo questioned Duque’s policy direction regarding the huge amount of testing kits procurement.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, Jr. said that the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) should also be held accountable, as they were responsible for the procurement based on their criteria rather than the DOH’s needs.
“Therefore, the PS-DBM should also be liable on this because you procured the equipment based on what you think is right, not based on what the DOH needs,” he said.
Garin also criticized the use of the Interim Reimbursement Mechanism (IRM) during the pandemic, through which PhilHealth disbursed members’ funds before a resolution was obtained, which created ongoing issues for the agency.
In the previous hearing, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra noted PhilHealth’s failure to submit copies of the circular to the Office of the National Administrative Register (ONAR), which invalidated the release of P14.9 billion to healthcare institutions.
“That money could have saved a lot of lives during the pandemic. That money could have been spent together with the DOH providing free testing during COVID pandemic,” Garin said.
NBI Agent John Vincent Bacho informed the panel that a case was already filed in October 2020, recommending charges against 14 PhilHealth officials for violations of the Anti-Graft Law or Republic Act 3019, the National Health Insurance Act, and administrative cases of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.
Bacho added that these cases involved the release of nearly P2.7 billion in IRM funds to 139 hospitals.
The committee is currently in the process of scrutinizing the budgetary performance and utilization of the DOH for Fiscal Year 2023 and first quarter of 2024.
