THE Philippine Institute on Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) accepted the turnover of a complete central office laboratory built at a cost of P1.8 million in September 2022.
The year after, it acquired 11 brand-new laboratory equipment with a combined value of P8.31 million.
Since then, however, the lab and the equipment have not been in use for 179 to 458 days.
“Validation and review of the documents relative to the Project disclosed that the laboratory, as well as the various equipment procured for the said laboratory, remained unutilized as of December 31, 2023 despite completion and acceptance of the same,” the COA said.
At the time of the procurement, PITAHC officials said the laboratory was necessary for its research and development project, saying its output “would be used to formulate standards and guidelines for the manufacture, quality control, and marketing of different traditional and alternative health care, and herbal medicines, materials, and products and to validate the therapeutic properties of herbal plants.”
The products were expected to be applicable for the treatment of both non-communicable and infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
An Inquiry with the R&D division, however, revealed that a crucial detail was overlooked – the electrical and plumbing requirements of the new equipment were not factored in when the laboratory was designed and constructed.
Auditors pointed out that based on the terms and conditions of the Central Office Laboratory building contract, all electrical and plumbing works were supposed to be part of the cost.
But the PITAHC’s own engineer admitted that the way it was built, the laboratory and its electrical system have proven inadequate to handle all the equipment when fully operational.
“Inquiry as to the electrical and plumbing assessment from PITAHC’s Engineer disclosed that after acceptance of the various procured laboratory equipment, there had been an incident of electrical malfunction when multiple equipment were operated which caused the circuit breaker to overheat, hence, the need for new electrical consultancy services,” the audit team said.
The as-built plan was also found to be lacking in critical information including specialized connections and power input requirements.
“On the other hand, the plumbing design for the laboratory only includes the placement of water sprinklers without the specifications on the layout of piping, water pressure, and others,” auditors added.
During the exit conference, management said it had acquired the checklist of the PRC documentary requirements for the application of a permit and updated the licenses of the registered chemist of PITAHC.
