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HOUSE HEARING

COA chair: We didn't say PS-DBM procurement of COVID-19 supplies was 'overpriced'

By ANNA FELICIA BAJO,GMA News

The Commission on Audit (COA) did not say that last year's purchase of COVID-19 supplies by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) was "overpriced," its chairman told a House inquiry on Wednesday.

"Wala po sa COA report ng PS-DBM ang statement na may overpricing po, there’s no statement to that. The observations relate more to inventory management than overpricing," Michael Aguinaldo said.

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has started its motu proprio investigation into the purchase of the medical supplies purchased by the PS-DBM during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

State auditors had questioned the DOH's transfer of P42 billion funds to the PS-DBM for the procurement of these items.

A separate Senate inquiry has been conducted over the issue where

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senators questioned the purchases for allegedly being overpriced.

President Rodrigo Duterte has defended the procurement, saying that there was no corruption involved.

Meanwhile, COA supervising auditor Rhodora Ugay clarified that the agency only audited the transfer of funds from the DOH to the PS-DBM.

"We will not be able to see any overpricing that's why we have no audit observation of overpricing procurement done by PS-DBM, we will not be seeing those documents, only transfer of funds," Ugay said.

The COA is still in the process of reviewing the contracts of purchases of COVID-19 supplies, according to supervising auditor Theresa Ronquillo.

"We are still reviewing the contracts of the purchases of the COVID items as of now. We are not yet finished so we have no observations [from] last year on that matter," she said. —KBK, GMA News