A SENIOR vice chair of the House committee on appropriations yesterday said there seems to be an overpricing in the procurement of COVID-19 test kits under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte (PRRD), the same observation made by some senators in the previous 18th Congress.
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo questioned the prices of test kits during the continuation of the committee’s investigation into the alleged irregularities in the transfer of P47.6 billion of DOH funds to the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) for COVID-19 supplies under the Duterte administration.
Quimbo, an economist, noticed discrepancies as high as P500 in the prices of test kits with the same brand and type, based on the DOH’s procurement list.
“I’ve noticed there were instances when the test type and brand were the same but the prices were different, and the price difference was as high as about P500. For example, there was a price difference like P2,083 versus P1,562,” she told the panel in mixed Filipino and English.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several senators, including Panfilo Lacson and Franklin Drilon, said the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and swab kits for COVID-19 testing appeared to have been overpriced.
“There’s about a 500-peso price difference. It is what it is. It’s a price difference. So, I’m asking for the details on the dates of the transaction,” Quimbo said.
Health Secretary Teodoro “Ted” Herbosa, who served as special adviser of the National Task Force against COVID-19 during the previous administration, explained that the prices of certain items changed over time, the explanation given by former Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
“So, I guess we need to look at the date that some items are procured because they were changing the cost as the pandemic was ongoing,” Herbosa said, to which Duque agreed.
Duque said documents pertaining to the timelines of the transaction are with the PS-DBM, as “they were the ones who directly transacted with the suppliers.”
It was learned during the hearing that PS-DBM handled the transactions with the suppliers, following instructions and specifications from the DOH but Quimbo said the DOH should have just consolidated its orders to secure better pricing.
Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, a former health secretary, herself, said the controversy could have been avoided if only the DOH did not delegate its procurement of COVID-19 commodities to the PS-DBM.
“It is actually a function that DOH should not delegate because the DOH has the pool of network when it comes to manufacturers, when it comes to pricing of other countries,” Garin said. “In a pandemic where commodities are quite new, we cannot base the pricing on traders or the market price in the Philippines because these commodities are not available in our country.”
Garin also cited the absence of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the DOH and PS-DBM for the procurement of COVID-19 supplies, saying the MOA “could have saved the DOH with all this hullabaloo.”
“The MOA will contain the items that will be procured, the safeguards, the quality check, and even the pricing,” she said.
Garin also said the appropriations panel is not doing the investigation “out of vindictiveness for the previous administration.”
“No. We are doing this para hindi maulit (so it doesn’t happen again),” she told the panel.
Last June 3, Duque III told the panel that the former President was the one who ordered the controversial transfer of P47.6 billion from the DOH to the PS-DBM for the purchase of COVID-19 supplies in 2020.
The Office of the Ombudsman last month ordered the filing of a graft case against Duque and Lao for the fund transfer, in violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
The anti-graft body has also found Duque and Lao guilty of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the service.
