DOH chief: No fund conversion

MANILA, Philippines -  Health Secretary Enrique Ona yesterday denied reports that the Department of Health (DOH) is also engaged in fund conversion.

“The Department of Health does not have ghost employees, ghost projects, intelligence or discretionary funds to convert,” Ona said in a statement.

“Every single peso allotted to and every foreign currency donated to the health department properly goes to where it was originally intended, and then properly liquidated and accounted (for),” he added.

Ona noted that for 2011, the DOH has been allotted a budget of P7.7 billion for personal services (PS), P15.1 billion for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), and P8.9 billion for capital outlay (CO), or a total of P31.7 billion.

Last year, he said, the DOH had a budget of P6.87 billion for PS, P11.32 billion for MOOE, and P6.46 billion for CO, a total of P24.65 billion.

Ona said he formed an ad hoc committee to determine the actual number of health personnel needed in the health sector.

The recommendations of the committee would be used in creating the 2012 to 2015 budget of the DOH.

“We are committed to ensure that every single Filipino needing health care in public health facilities will be attended to properly by health workers as we take concrete steps to achieve our goal of access to universal health care,” Ona said.