Morales on overpricing claims: I assumed everything was regular when I signed

PhilHealth chief Ricardo Morales on Tuesday said he assumed his subordinates had followed regular processes before he signed a contract for allegedly overpriced ICT equipment.

Senator Panfilo Lacson revealed earlier in the day that PhilHealth last year awarded a P4.8-million contract for 15 units of network switches when the market price was just over P939,000.

Lacson said this would have led to P3.878 million in government losses if it had pushed through. He said it did not end up getting implemented.

Asked about this during a Senate hearing, Morales said: "It bothers me that the price is not accurate, if we could be paying more than what we should be paying for."

He acknowledged that there was "discrepancy" in the prices but that he did not get a "definite answer" on which was the correct figure.

When Senator Pia Cayetano pressed him about whether he thought there was overpricing when he saw the document, Morales said he "assumed that everything was regular when I signed it."

"'Yun hong mga pinipirmahan ko na dokumento goes through several processes, they go through several executives who are supposed to do their due diligence before it reaches me for approval," he said.

"So I assumed po in this case that that question has been resolved and that the figures that were presented to me were the right and correct figures for the items to be purchased," he added.

He said he is not an IT expert.

The Senate earlier ordered a PhilHealth official to produce documents in relation to the intended purchase.

Questions on supposedly overpriced network switches formed part of the Senate's investigation into alleged corruption in the state health insurer.

Morales earlier denied he is a coddler of corrupt officials. — BM, GMA News