COA: DOH has P2.2-billion in expired, nearly expired medicines, supplies

The Department of Health (DOH) has accumulated P2.2 billion worth of expired, overstocked or nearly expired medicines as well as medical and dental supplies, a Commission on Audit (COA) report showed.

In its 2019 annual audit report on the DOH, state auditors said that these P2.2 billion expired, overstocked or nearly expired medicines and medical/dental supplies piled up due to poor procurement planning; inefficient and uncoordinated transfer/distribution; and lack of monitoring and proper storage.

These actions, COA said, violated Section 2 of the Government Auditing Code which states that "all resources of the government should be managed, expended or utilized in accordance with law and regulations, and safeguarded against loss or wastage through illegal or improper disposition, with a view to ensuring efficiency, economy and effectiveness in the operations of government.

Of the P2.2 billion, P29 million were expired, P1.14 billion were overstocked and P1 billion were  near expiry.

“The occurrence of these expired, overstocked and nearly expired inventory items is a manifestation of an excessive expenditure since items were procured more than what is needed. It is a result of poor inventory/supply management system covering procurement planning, monitoring, storage and acceptance/issuance/transfer/distribution of goods,” COA said.

“Essentially, the existence of this conditions affects the curative efficacy of drugs and medicines and wastage of government funds, thus, failing to deliver a quality health care services,” it added.

Given the findings, COA has recommended that the DOH take the following steps:

• review the contracts, especially those of existing suppliers
• exercise prudence in the use of government resources by ensuring that procurement is limited to those immediately needed or for the current year requirement
• strictly implement the timeline on the distribution/transfer of the inventories 
• expedite the distribution of the nearly expired medicines
• formulate internal control policies necessary to minimize the occurrence of expired drugs such as establishing adequate control on custodianship, issuances, and stock level monitoring through the maintenance of inventory database or computerized system, among others.

The 2019 national budget allocated P15 billion for the procurement of drugs, medicines and vaccines, including medical and dental supplies for distribution to various government health care facilities nationwide.

Of said amount, 80% were earmarked to provinces where the incidence of diseases are high, provided, that no amount will be used to purchase dengue vaccines. -NB, GMA News