DOH stopped fund transfers to PS-DBM, PITC, House panel told

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday told a House committee that it stopped the fund transfers to the Department of Budget and Management - Procurement Service (PS-DBM) and Philippine International Trading Corp. relating to the procurement of COVID-19 supplies in 2020 under former DOH secretary Francisco Duque III.

Undersecretary Achilles Gerard Bravo said that in September 2023, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa issued a department order stating that the agency will no longer be issuing succeeding fund transfers to the PS-DBM unless previous transfers have been fully liquidated.

“As of September 28, there’s already an instruction that we will no longer transfer funds to either PS-DBM or PITC or other government corporations,” he said during an oversight meeting of the House Committee on Appropriations with DOH.

Bravo also said that all the biddings of the DOH central office are now being conducted within the central office alone. The Bids and Awards Committees at the agency’s main office have also been reduced to three from the previous seven to eight.

This prompted Iloilo Representative Janette Garin, who is also a former Health secretary, to question if the DOH saw anything wrong with what Duque did that made Herbosa issue such a department order.

“In my experience having been with the department for a year and half, you do a memorandum or you do an order to correct a wrong deed that was committed… Dahil binago ni Secretary Herbosa na hindi na pwede ‘yung ganitong nangyari [because Herbosa changed the policy], does this mean that there was a red flag in what Secretary Duque did? A possibility of a red flag?” Garin asked.

DOH spokesperson Assistant Secretary Albert Domingo replied in the affirmative to Garin’s query.

“Madam chair, tama po ang possibility of a red flag based on the COA (Commission on Audit) findings at sumusunod po kami sa advice ng auditor,” he said.

(Madam chair, the possibility of a red flag based on the COA findings is correct and we are following the auditor's advice.)

State auditor Ma. Carmelita Enriquez said that COA has a “fraud” finding in the transfer of multi-billion funds by DOH to PS-DBM.

GMA News Online sought for the comment of Duque regarding the matter, but he has yet to respond as of posting.

The House Committee on Appropriations is also set to invite Duque and PS-DBM in the next oversight meeting.

Earlier this month, the Ombudsman ordered the filing of graft charges against Duque and former DBM Undersecretary Christopher Lao over the alleged irregular transfer of over P41 billion for the procurement of COVID-19 supplies in March 2020.

In a separate decision on the administrative complaint against them, the Ombudsman also found Duque and Lao guilty of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the service.

Duque, in response, said he would file a motion for reconsideration regarding the Ombudsman's order.—RF, GMA Integrated News