In near tears during a congressional hearing on Tuesday, August 16, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III accused the Commission on Audit of destroying the good image of the Department of Health with the latter’s release of an audit report detailing serious adverse findings in the disbursement by DOH of some P67.32 billion in COVID-19 funds.
“Winarak ninyo kami. (You destroyed us) This is really unfair, unjust. This judgement has been handed down without giving DOH the full 60 days for us to give our reaction,” Duque stated during the congressional inquiry conducted by the House Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Probinsyano Ako Partylist Rep. Jose “Bonito” C. Singson Jr.
Duque said he and his fellow DOH officials have been losing sleep since the COA report started hogging the headlines and continued to go viral in the internet.
“Winarak nila ang imahe ng DOH na nagunguna sa pagtugon sa mabigat na dagok ng COVID 19 pandemic (They destrited the image of the DOH that has led in responding to the adverse effect of the COVID-19 pandemic),” he said.
Duque stated: “I beg that you give us the time to be able to provide the documents, to give the rejoinders being ask from us. It is very clear we have 60 days.” The Cabinet official lamented that the observations made by COA in DOH’s handling of the COVID-19 fund were made to appear that graft and corruption was involved.
Duque saw the opportunity to release his emotions after Deputy Speaker and 1SAGIP Partylist Rep. Rodante Marcoleta questioned the COA for releasing the 2020 Annual Audit Report without waiting for the DOH to address the issues raised by audit examiners.
Marcoleta said the DOH still has until September, 2021 to submit the documents needed to support its financial transactions and comply with other audit recommendations.
However, COA Chairman Michael Aguinaldo stressed that before the 2020 AAR was posted in the COA website recently, the audit team headed by Supervisiing Auditor Doris Ugay had numerous meetings with DOH officials for the latter to address the audit issues raised at the end of 2020.
“The annual audit report is a requirement by law and must come out by June 30 of each year. Before an audit report is issued, there is a lot of due process constantly followed,” he said.
“It is not correct at all to say that there is no due process. Aside from the meetings, we also had an exit conference,” Aguinaldo pointed out.
Annual audit reports (AARs) cover the previous year and are released by the middle of the following year.
According to Aguinaldo the AARs released are considered final because these were based on audit examinations of transactions and activities of the year covered.
“We do have an obligation to report to Congress how the budget they have authorized was used by the agencies,” he explained.
The chief auditor also declared that COA does not issue press releases on its audit report although he admitted having issued one to clarify that the 2020 AAR for DOH contained “no finding money was lost due to corruption.” Among other audit observations, COA found that the DOH was unable to fully spend P11.89 billion in COVID -19 funds released in 2020 and failed to accomplish projects financed with foreign funds amounting to P3.4 billion.
Procedural deficiencies and lack of complete documentation were noted in disbursements of P5.03 billion while there have been lapses in the handling of P98;4 million in petty cash were discovered.
The alleged failure of the DOH to properly manage the P539.29 million allowances for health personnel was also noted.