Secretary Andanar: No overpricing, no corruption in DOH procurement
MANILA - Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Thursday reiterated that there was no fraudulent conduct in the government's purchase of medical supplies in the most expeditious manner, as he cited the Commission on Audit’s clarification on flagging the Department of Health.
During a hearing by the House Committee on Good Government
and Public Accountability, COA Chairman Michael Aguinaldo said that there was no incident of
overpricing, but instead the flagging was due to inventory management through
the transfer of funds, as it did not have a memorandum of agreement and
supporting document such as the liquidation of pending procurement.
DOH transferred PHP42.4 billion worth of funds to PS-DBM
for the procurement of COVID-19 supplies. Initially looking into the figures of
the purchases, the opposition called out the transaction as an overpriced
procurement.
Secretary Andanar said that this is just another game of
the critics to undermine the efforts of the administration.
“Ang mga kririko
natin talagang inuupakan tayo para na lang eh kahit papaano mawala tayo sa
timing, mawala tayo sa vision natin. Kumbaga sinisira yung ating momentum [Our
critics are really persistent in attacking us just so we lose our track, our timing,
and our vision. They are sabotaging our momentum],” he said.
He noted that the
transaction was compliant with
existing laws such as Republic Act (RA) 9184 or the Government Procurement
Reform Act, Government Procurement Policy Board issuances (GPPB), and RA 11469
of Bayanihan to Heal As One Act.
“There was no
overpriced procurement because during the onset of the pandemic the prices of
the PPEs such as facemask have risen following the law of supply and demand,”
Secretary Andanar said.
“Time was of the
essence at kung hindi natin ginawa itong procurement ng medical supplies para
sa ating mga medical frontliners, ay talagang magsu-suffer sila [Time was of
the essence and had we not done this procurement of medical supplies for our
medical frontliners, we know inevitably that they would suffer],” he added.
The PCOO chief
noted that this malicious scheme of critics is no different from the accusation
of fake news thrown against the legacy campaign of the PCOO.
“The government
is ready to answer allegations by the critics. When they say that the Duterte
Legacy is fake news, all they need to do is check on those bridges and roads
that were completed, talk to students who are enjoying free tertiary education,
or talk to those former rebels we have assisted,” he said.
“The critics
should be able to see that these are not just pulled out of thin air. These
have empirical evidence,” he added.
