COA report: Indigents fail to get P92M worth of solon's medic aid

Indigent beneficiaries were not able to avail of the P92 million worth of medical assistance from the Priority Development Fund of former senator John Osmeña given last year to the Department of Health-7, according to the Commission on Audit recently.

The COA, in its audit report of 2005 for the DOH-7, said the senator's fund given to the Center for Health and Development of Central Visayas or CHD- 7 remained idle for almost a year causing the failure of the intended beneficiaries to avail of it.

As part of the Medical Assistance Program of legislators, medical assistance funds are extended to hospitals of the legislators' choice, out of their respective PDAF, as part of their medical aid program.

These funds are intended to pay the cost of drugs and medicines and other medical services provided to their indigent constituents.

The COA report said the P92 million was released to CHD-7 on May 4, 2005 but this was ordered transferred to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management on June 10, 2005 for the hospitals under the CHD-7's jurisdiction.

COA noted that until the end of 2005, the Procurement Service failed to deliver the drugs and medicines despite efforts from CHD-7, because the agency required documents for bidding while the then senator also required the list of medicines and drugs to be bought for his approval.

The COA report said it took three months to process the documents allegedly because of Osmeña's failure to return the list on time.



CHD-7 director Susana Madarieta said the DBM's Procurement Service had difficulty in getting bidders of certain medicines and drugs, perhaps also due to the large amount involved.

But she said the DBM's Procurement Service had told her lately that the bid pushed through and that drugs and medicines are due for delivery any day now, the bulk of which will be sent to district hospitals in Cebu and the rest for other provinces in the region.

Madarieta also said that not all of the P92 million were utilized because some of the items were not purchased due to lack of bidders for them. The COA advised to return the unused fund to the National Treasury, she said.

The COA recommendations were already discussed at length during the exit conference and some of these were even enforced already, she said.

Madarieta alleged that Osmeña did not make any approval of the list of items to be procured but the DBM and COA already approved the guidelines for the implementation and utilization of the legislative fund received.

She said this time the funds would no longer be transferred to the Procurement Service and would be left at the CHD-7 for immediate delivery of services.

The CHD-7 has been working for stricter implementation of the guidelines to prevent the existence of "ghost patients," Madarieta said. - Ferliza C. Contratista