THE Commission on Audit has cleared officials of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) of any liability in relation to the questioned procurement of surgical equipment worth P18.55 million in 2015.
In a decision released last week, the COA Commission Proper granted the petition for review filed by officials of the Cebu City-based government hospital to reverse the ruling of COA Regional Office No. 7 that sustained the 2015 notice of disallowance (ND) issued against the transaction.
State auditors initially issued a notice of suspension on September 1, 2014 due to the non-submission of the copy of the Performance/Quality Material Test, original copy of the packing list, certificate of exclusive distributorship, and copy of the completed certificate of inspection and acceptance report.
An ocular inspection of the hospital equipment by the Technical Audit Service in June 2015 resulted in the issuance of a notice of disallowance in November 2015.
Held liable were medical center chief Gerardo Aquino Jr., chief nurse Alam Ungab, financial management officer Maureen Bien, and payee RBGM Medical Express Sales Inc.
Among the grounds cited were failure to comply with contract specifications, some of the items delivered had rust stains, metal parts were affected by magnetism, and some were pulled out for surface treatment after delivery.
Auditors said while the supplier was supposed to deliver Aesculap instruments with the brand engraved on the items together with the mark “Made in Germany,” no such marks were found on the instruments. Instead, “VSMMC” was engraved on them.
In their appeal, the VSMMC officials pointed out that the certificate of inspection and acceptance report was submitted in December 2015 and argued that the delay in the final results of the testing was not attributable to any fault of theirs since it was caused by the breakdown of the testing machine used by the Metal Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC).
They clarified that the mark “Made in Germany” was not required in the technical specification but “VSMMC” was for all operation room instruments due to the need to prevent mix up with personal OR instruments used by surgeons.
Finally, they contested the finding that the Acculan 3TI reciprocating saw and its accessories were overpriced since the method of comparison was not consistent with jurisprudence.
In ruling to grant the appeal, the COA said the report of the Technical Audit Service was not backed by additional evidence to support its findings.
“The amount of evidence in the finding of overpricing to support the disallowance does not establish a reliable degree of certainty. The initial market indicator was not supported with canvass sheets and/or price quotations. Due to the foregoing, the allegation of overpricing should fail,” the commission said.
