DOH-7 told to justify P11.8M CNA bonus

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Audit has ordered the Department of Health in Central Visayas and the Talisay District Hospital to justify the P11.8 million spent for their Collective Negotiation Agreement bonus in 2008 and 2009.

State auditors also found an overprice medicine procurement for the Eversley Child Sanitarium Hospital in Mandaue City amounting to P3.2 million.

In its annual audit report, COA found out that the P11,050,000 CNA bonus collected by the officials and employees of DOH-7 and the P819,261.63 of Talisay District Hospital did not have supported documents.

State auditors ordered health officials to submit the necessary documents supporting the grant of the CNA incentive.

The Department of Budget and Management Circular No. 2006-1 provides that the concerned government agency is required to submit to the DBM a report on the utilization of savings for the payment of the CNA incentive.

The health officials have claimed that they have generated millions of pesos surplus out of their budget when they implemented cost cutting measures of their electricity use and other expenses.

“Appropriate cost-cutting measures were made, which resulted in the generation of savings through restrictive use of electricity and gasoline, limited purchase of supplies and dove-tailing of travels for monitoring activities,” said the health officials under DOH-7 director Susana Madarieta.

The officials of the Talisay City District Hospital said they have generated surplus through cost cutting of the use of electricity and water, laboratory and X-Ray supplies, selective participation of seminars to be attended but without sacrificing the quality of service rendered to the patients.

Meanwhile, COA found out an overpriced medicine consigned for the Eversley Child Sanitarium in Mandaue City. According to COA, the overpricing ranged from 4.48 to 119 percent compared to the prevailing retail market price in local drugstores.

State auditors explained that the reason why there was overpricing because the drugs and medicines were purchased without the required advertising for submission of price offers by all qualified suppliers.

COA learned that the invitations to submit price offers were not sent to all prospective suppliers because the management just selected the consignors who will submit price offers for their products.

Another audit observation was that those five selected consignors were not accredited by the DOH to supply drugs and medicines.

“The management of Eversley Child Sanitarium entered into drug consignment agreements with the five suppliers without evaluating their offers to determine the most advantageous price to the government,” the state auditors said.

COA officials advised the management of the Eversley Child Sanitarium to strictly observe and comply with the specific guidelines and procedures in the procurement of consigned drugs and medicines prescribed under the DOH administrative order. (FREEMAN)