P550M gov't-procured COVID-19 test kits expired in 2020 —Pangilinan

Some P550 million worth of COVID-19 kits procured by the government expired at the time the country was struggling to test suspected coronavirus patients and their close contacts, Senator Francis Pangilinan pointed out on Tuesday.

Pangilinan also said that the government lost around P1.25 billion for paying in full the procured COVID-19 test kits which have short shelf life or near-expiry.

During the continuation of the Senate blue ribbon panel’s probe into the alleged overpriced pandemic supplies, Pangilinan presented a letter dated December 7, 2020 which was signed by Health Assistant Secretary Nelson Santiago.

The letter was addressed to former chief of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) Christopher  Lloyd Lao.

“DOH was requesting a rescheduling of the delivery of Pharmally testing kits because the test kits that were delivered expired. Hindi nagamit... They paid in full for testing kits that were due to expire in six months,” Pangilinan said.

Santiago confirmed the letter obtained by Pangilinan.

He said 7,925 test kits have expired.

“As per my record, there was 7,925,” the DOH official replied when asked on the matter.

Each kit can do around 50 COVID-19 tests depending on the brand, Santiago said.

The lawmaker noted that the purchases was made “in the middle of a situation wherein we were not testing enough.”

“I’d like to know if this 7,925 is the total or is this 7,925 that have 50 tests per kit otherwise that would have been 35,000 (tests). At P1,200 of P2,000 e malaking pera yun,” he added.

At this point, Santiago bared that the almost 8,000 kits could cover 371,794 tests.

“At that time, talagang all the kits were only having a shelf life of six months. Based on my record, it’s 371,794 tests,” he said.

Pangilinan then asked if all of the test kits were procured from Pharmally, to which the DOH official replied he does not know because it was the PS-DBM  that ordered it.

“But you wrote in your copy furnished Mr. Mohit Dargani so I assume these are Pharmally kits,” Pangilinan said

“Yes, but I don’t know if we only ordered BGI in Pharmally,” Santiago responded.

The senator pointed out that it was from Pharmally as the letter was addressed to the firm's officials.

“Mr. Lao also wrote Dargani ‘Attention: Mohit Dargani. Request to delay the delivery of test kits.’ So it’s Pharmally,” Pangilinan said.

Citing two Joint Inspection and Evaluation Reports of PS-DBM, Pangilinan disclosed that Pharmally delivered 4,800 kits on May 2, 2020, and 3,200 kits on May 4, 2020.

The inspection reports showed that the kits have a manufacturing date of April 5, 2020 and an expiry date of October 5, 2020, or in six months, he said.

He noted that the PS-DBM Technical Requirement document dated April 21, 2020 require all testing kits to be fresh stock and mush have a shelf-life of at least 24 to 36 months from the date of delivery.

The lawmaker then reiterated that the government should avoid repeating the same scenario, where the government will procure test kits that are not compliant with the technical specifications.

Pangilinan further disclosed other Pharmally testing kit deliveries with available inspection receipts:

• 2,000 A*Star Fortitude Kit 2.0 Covid-19 RT-PCR Test delivered 2-4 months from expiration date, P688 million;
• 41,400 BGI, Real-Time Fluorescent RT-PCR kit, delivered 9 months before expiration date, P2.88 billion;
• 312 MGI Easy Magnetic Beads Virus DNA/RNA Extraction, delivered 8 months before expiration date, P246 million.

He said the technical requirement for the A*Star Fortitude Kit is fresh stock with a minimum shelf life of 24 to 36 months from delivery date while the rest have a required minimum shelf life of 12 to 24 months from date of delivery.

Citing data from industry insiders, Pangilinan said the test kits that have 12 to 18 months shelf life would have a discount of 10-15%.

If the shelf life is within 6 to 12 months, discount is at 15-25%. If it’s less than six months, it’s around 30% or more.

“But full amount was paid. That is overpriced. Not just overpriced, that is also using equipment that is substandard or at least lacking in the necessary shelf life for us to be able to effectively deal with Covid [and] avoid deaths and sickness,” Pangilinan said.

He further noted that a 25% discount would have given the government an additional P1.25 billion.

“So bakit pinayagan natin na mag-deliver ang Pharmally nang hindi compliant sa technical specifications tapos binayaran pa ng full na dapat sana na-diskwento. Tapos hindi na na-diskwento binayaran ng buo. Hindi compliant tapos 371,000 na mga testing kits na hindi na magamit,” Pangilinan asked.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III explained that the 12 to 24 months expiry period was a “pre-pandemic” requirement.

“Bago po kasi itong virus na ito, pati 'yung mga gumagawa ng mga test kits have to rely on evolving information as to the stability of the test kits,” he said.

Apart from the P1.25 billion savings from the 25% estimated discount, Pangilinan showed a computation on the wasted public funds due to the procurement of expired testing kits.

“We did a quick computation of the numbers given by Asec. Santiago. [The] 7,925 testing kits at around 50 per kit and at P69,500, that would be P550 million worth of expired testing kits and P75,000 per kit, that was the first purchase, it would be P594 million worth of expired testing kits,” he said.

“So that gives us the gravity of the waste, incompetence, corruption that we are facing. And maybe Secretary Duque can respond…. P500 million worth testing kits expired at the height of the pandemic and we are struggling with testing. Is that acceptable to you?” he asked.

“No, Mr. Chairman, it’s not acceptable to me,” Duque responded.

Senators have been investigating the purchase of COVID-19 supplies last year, during which Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation bagged more than P8 billion in government contracts for the said procurement of personal protective equipment (PPEs), which were alleged to be overpriced.—AOL, GMA News