LGU officials may be liable for wasted COVID-19 vaccines –DILG

Local government unit (LGU) officials may be held liable for neglect of duty and misconduct over expired and wasted COVID-19 vaccines, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya warned on Tuesday.

“It depends on the circumstances. Depending on the result of the investigation,” Malaya told GMA News Online.

Malaya underscored that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) was also monitoring the performance of the LGUs through the vaccine operations reporting system.

“We also have the field officers present in all city and municipal halls nationwide so we have the people on site who monitor LGU performance,” the DILG undersecretary bared.

Asked if they had found LGU officials who were guilty of neglect of duty over wasted COVID-19 vaccines, Malaya said, “Wala pa naman (None yet).”

“But we already increased the vaccine supply to the provinces and we increased the daily jab target of all LGUs,” he added.

During a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año also warned concerned LGUs that they would face charges for the wasted or expired COVID-19 vaccines.

A total of 12,970 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been discarded due to issues with temperature, transportation, and labeling, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire reported.

Vergeire said vaccines that were not labeled or those whose labels had been damaged were discarded. — DVM, GMA News