DOH transparent, no corruption in P67-B flagged by COA: exec

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) said it has been transparent about how it spent the country’s coronavirus pandemic response funds.

In a Laging Handa briefing on Saturday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire maintained that there is no corruption in the PHP67.3 billion funds flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).

“Ang COA has clarified this already yesterday na ang kanilang ginagawa ay procedural at hindi kailangan bahiran na may korupsyon agad ang amin kagawaran dahil nagsusumite pa tayo ng mga dokumento na kinakailangan for evidence that we already utilized this fund (COA has clarified this already yesterday that this is procedural and there is no need to accuse us of corruption because we are still submitting the needed evidence to show we already utilized this fund),” she said.

Vergeire said the DOH was given until September 27 to submit the required documents and is now waiting for some of its units to complete their papers.

In a separate statement, the department said it would accomplish the requirements by next week.

“Atin pong dino-doble ang efforts para makuha na po natin lahat ito and we are not going to wait for that specific timeline na binigay para makumpleto natin ang kailangang isumite so that this report will be closed already (We are doubling our efforts to get these and we will not wait for that specific timeline to address the report already),” she said.

“Gusto lang natin ipaliwanag na DOH has always been transparent. Lahat ng pera na naibigay sa atin para gastusin para sa pandemyang ito ay well accounted. Ito pong PHP67 billion na sinasabi well accounted for. Lahat po iyan (We just wanted to say that DOH has always been transparent. All the money that was provided for pandemic response is well accounted for. This PHP67 billion fund is well accounted for).”

Vergeire added that the DOH was able to use almost 98 percent of the funds provided since the beginning of the outbreak.

The DOH, on the other hand, is open to any investigation and is more than willing to share agency documents, she said.

“We are open to all types of investigation. Hindi po kami aatras diyan. Gusto ko lang sabihin sa ating mga kababayan na sana po ‘yong paghuhusga gawin natin kapag kumpleto na lahat ng ating nakikitang mga ebidensya (We will not back down but I’m appealing to our citizens that before they judge, they should wait until all pieces of evidence are complete),” Vergeire said.

“Ang DOH ay patuloy na nagbibigay ng utmost na trabaho para sa ating mga kababayan at pagdating sa ka-perahan, hinding hindi po kami gumagawa ng korapsyon (The DOH continues to work for our people and when it comes to money, we do not engage in corruption).”

The state audit body, in its 2020 annual audit report, found deficiencies involving Covid-19 funds amounting to PHP67.3 billion due to non-submission of documentations or supporting papers.

However, in a clarification released on Friday, the COA said the report itself “does not mention any findings by the auditors of funds lost to corruption” and the DOH may still submit the required papers.

“As there are recommendations for compliance by the DOH, the audit process for the deficiencies pointed has not been completed. Hence, it is premature at this stage to make conclusions on the findings in the Consolidated Annual Audit Report,” it said.