President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Department of Health to respond to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) observation that “deficiencies” in the P67 billion pandemic funds were allegedly not used properly by the DOH.
“Well, ang instruction po ng Presidente ay saguting mabuti ang mga observation ng COA. Iba kasi itong nature ng observation ng COA noh? kung sa dati-rati eh mga politiko lang ang mga nagbibigay ng paratang. Ang COA po kasi ay isang constitutional body at talagang ang trabaho niyan eh bantayan ang kaban ng bayan,” said Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
For now, he said, the President will not issue his “judgment” until the DOH submits a comment.
“Ngayon, premature pa po ah. Sasagot pa lang po ang DOH. Hintayin natin ang sagot. The President is keen to read the answers dahil medyo mabigat po ang mga obserbasyon,” said Roque.
As a lawyer, Duterte said he knew that only after an accused or an agency had responded and had made a final observation, the COA would only be able to file a case.
“Ang Presidente po, walang sinasanto. There are no sacred cows in this administration,” said Roque.
Duterte orders DOH to answer corruption allegations
The President wants the billions of funds released for the COVID response to be used for the benefit of the people, Roque said.
According to a report by the Commission on Audit (COA) released Wednesday, the Department of Health has seen some alleged lack of proper funding for the pandemic.
The COA report said that this includes more than P5 billion worth of purchases made by the agency without proper documents and more than P194 million that was allegedly not in favor of the government.
It is estimated that more than P1.45 billion in donations do not have enough documents.
More than P69 million in medical equipment and supplies were also procured. Still, they were not used or were not used immediately due to reasons that can be avoided if procurement planning is followed properly, according to the COA.
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.