DOH seeks Ombudsman probe of alleged irregularities in 2015 barangay health stations project

The Department of Health (DOH) has requested the Office of the Ombudsman to conduct a fact-finding investigation on the alleged multi-billion irregularities discovered in a 2015 department project.

According to a statement by the DOH on Monday, the request was a result of findings by a task force convened in April by the DOH that affirmed the Commission on Audit's (COA) findings on the P8.1 billion 2-phase Barangay Health Stations (BHS) project.

The section of the 2017 COA Performance Audit Report on HFEP Projects dedicated to the public school-based BHS stated that the construction of 5,700 facilities in public schools in 2015 to 2016 were obstructed, delayed, and remain uncompleted.

As per the report, the project "was obstructed by ineligible and non-workable project sites that were not fully validated before project contracting and implementation due to absence of specific guidelines."

"Delayed and non-completion of the total BHS contracted again impacts on the procured equipment which remain idle or undistributed to intended school-based BHS.”

A formal request was sent to COA for a fraud audit on the BHS and the P9.3 billion Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) released on Dec. 29, 2015 by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Documents have also been submitted to the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), "which issued requests and subpoenas to aid their own parallel investigation."

"Heads will roll. Big names, small names, past and present. There will be no sacred cows. Heads will definitely roll," Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said in the statement.

"First order of business is to clean our house from within. I will continue instituting changes, including reorganization, in the coming days," he said.

Duque said he has also ordered "a meticulous review of all transactions entered into by the previous administrations."

Previously, the DOH accused then-Health Secretary Janette Garin and then-Philippine Health Insurance Corporation president Alexander Padilla of diverting P10.6 billion from a program for senior citizens to the construction of BHS.

Garin has denied that the P10.6 billion came from PhilHealth's senior citizen fund, as accused by the DOH, saying the amount came from unprogrammed funds that the DBM has yet to remit to the national insurance agency. — RSJ, GMA News