The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has urged the Department of Health (DOH) to include the participation of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) especially in the next procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.
The DOH has earlier disclosed its plans to purchase a limited number of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines for the vulnerable population.
Sen. Francis Tolentino, chairman of the Blue Ribbon panel, suggested this to DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire during the committee’s hearing
on the alleged refusal of the DOH to release the details of the vaccine procurement contracts on the pretext of a supposedly existing Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Tolentino made the suggestion after Vergeire confirmed during the hearing that the DOH plans to place an order for just about five (5) million doses as soon as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authority (EUA) on these items.
According to Vergeire, these bivalent vaccines will be given as additional doses to citizens, specifically those part of the vulnerable sector.
At this, Tolentino said the DOH should tap the OSG especially during the pre-negotiation stage.
“Can we now involve the OSG in the pre-negotiations so that they can vet the contents of the contract on bivalent vaccines that you plan to enter into?” he said.
“We have learned our lessons here. Let’s involve the OSG, even showing them the preliminary details so that everything would be transparent. That’s probably part of the recommendation of this committee,” the senator said.
In response, Vergeire agreed saying: “We will work closely with the OSG.”
Tolentino said it is important to make sure that the procurement contracts to be entered into and in the future by the DOH would be of great benefit, and not be burdensome, to the Filipino people.
At the start of the hearing, Tolentino said it is necessary to look whether policies are in place in the government’s procurement contracts and whether Congress can still do more to ensure that funds, sourced locally or foreign, can be utilized properly with accountability and transparency.
“We are not here to determine whether the price was different from other acquisitions or purchases made by other jurisdiction, we are not here to determine wrongdoing in so far as the purchases, procurement made then, and we are not here to ascribe any malfeasance, misfeasance or any violation of existing penal laws,” Tolentino said in his opening statement.
“We are here to determine whether the accuracy of the P44-million wasted doses of various vaccines were really accurate and made within the bounds and parameters of what can be wasted.. and we are here to determine whether those policies can be corrected,” he added.
But during the hearing, Vergeire affirmed that the DOH will submit copies of the earlier COVID-19 procurement contracts to the Commission on Audit (COA) by Thursday, December 15, for auditing.
Next year, Tolentino said the panel will conduct an executive session with the COA, DOH and other agencies and stakeholders in the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines to discuss the result of the COA audit report.
From there, the senator said he hopes that the Senate panel would be able to help guide the DOH “in its future acquisitions” to prevent it from entering into any onerous contract.