Still no public bidding in purchase of MisOr drugs, medical supplies – COA

September 26, 2008

By Lizanilla J. Amarga

The Commission on Audit (COA) found that Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental still do not conduct bulk public biddings and has failed to follow other procurement procedures when it comes to purchasing drugs and medicine supplies for its district hospitals.

In his Annual Audit Report 2007, COA Misamis Oriental provincial auditor Florentino Nueva said the purchase of drugs and medicines was delegated to the General Services Officer who procured these supplies through shopping instead of bulk bidding.

He said this “deficiency” in procuring medicines and other medical supplies had been an audit finding since 2005 and has remained unimplemented even until now.

“As a result, the seven devolved hospitals were often had shortages of drugs and medicines necessary for the efficient and effective delivery of health services to its constituents,” his recently-released report reads.

Nueva said the General Services Officer has explained that “it is impossible to conduct bulk bidding because despite the huge appropriations for medicines and other medical supplies, they are dependent of the actual cash availability of the Province.”

He added in his report how he was told by the General Services Officer that the concerned hospitals were always late in the submission of their Purchase Requests, thus, the Provincial Government resorted to shopping “for they believe that it was the fastest and most convenient way for the delivery of the much needed health services.”

Nueva also quoted in his audit report some of the comments sent by the Provincial Government to them in various letters.

The comments included how the Provincial Government considers public bidding as the general mode of procurement but that “shopping has been taken as a normal precedent” as an “indispensable practice” of local government-run hospitals wherein the “exigency of service is the prime consideration where hospital purchases are concerned.”

Also, that the Provincial Government has established the Hospital Operations Service/Division aimed to improve the “timeliness and availability of stocks for hospital sustainability” which has improved the actual revenue collections of the district hospitals from P4.8 million in 2004 to P19.8 million in 2007.

Moreover, the Provincial Government said periodic consultation and capability build-up essential within the health and hospital services have been regularly conducted for the single objective of providing continuous supply of hospital logistics, taking into consideration the increasing demands of the predominant PHILHEALTH indigent beneficiaries covering the 25 LGUs wholly financed by the Province.

However, Nueva said Republic Act 9184 does not have any provisions that “shopping can be taken as a normal precedent for local government units operating hospitals nor is it an indispensable practice in the exigency of service.”

He said it is not correct for the Provincial Government to also to say that “the practice of bidding and shopping, whichever is legitimate and advantageous and as recommended by the BAC,” since it is always public bidding as a general rule, unless the immediate need is really emergency in nature.

“If such condition is prevailing in the LGU during the year, such practice would always redound to poor planning and/or procedural lapses on the part of the Agency and thus, the procurement of medical supplies should not be categorized under “emergency purchase,” he said.

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Written by admin · Filed Under Misamis Oriental