The Commission on Audit (COA) on Friday said it had not observed anything suspicious in the Aquino Administration’s purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) from 2015 to 2016.
During the House Committee on Appropriations’ deliberations on the proposed 2022 P14.46-billion budget of the COA, Iloilo 1st District Representative Janette Garin asked COA Chairman Michael Aguinaldo if the state auditing agency could remember any flagging in the purchase of PPEs back in 2015 and 2016.
Garin was a former Health Secretary from 2015 to 2016 during the administration of the late former President Benigno Aquino III.
“As far as I know parang wala namang observation na ganun po (I don’t think anything like that was observed),” Aguinaldo responded.
Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque dared Senator Franklin Drilon to explain the Aquino Administration’s purchase of PPEs worth above P3,000 each in 2015 and 2016.
Roque brought up the issue amid the Senate inquiry into the President Rodrigo Duterte government’s multi-billion peso PPE deal with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. despite the company only having a paid-up capital of P625,000.
Drilon, for his part, pointed out that the purchase was not flagged by the COA.
Garin, during the House Appropriations panel hearing, said she could not recall involvement in the procurement of these PPEs.
“However, if my memory serves me right, certain government directors and our national laboratory the National Institute of Tropical Medicine have procured PPEs for the Ebola and MERS-COV response,” she said.
“I was not directly involved. I am also not defending them. I am not defending anybody. I also don’t know if the technical specs can be compared because it might be different,” she added.
Aguinaldo, meanwhile, confirmed that the COA’s auditors in charge of the Department of Health had looked into the PPE purchases of the Aquino Administration.
“Initial findings nila there were several procurements of different types of PPEs. The volume was not that big, around 2,000 to 3,000 pieces, but we don’t have any data yet on the description of these PPEs,” the COA chief said.
“It might not be an apples to oranges thing, sabi ko, ‘Let’s look.’ Kung ano anong klaseng PPEs ba ‘to if it is the same nature as the ones purchased [by the current administration],” he added.
Roque, in his Wednesday briefing, said the Aquino Administration bought PPEs worth above P3,000 each in 2015 and 2016 while the Duterte Administration bought the PPEs at P1,700 each amid the pandemic.
He also denied that the Duterte Administration earned kickbacks from the transaction.
In probing the purchase, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee under Senator Richard Gordon is seeking information on the possible links of Chinese businessman Michael Yang, President Rodrigo Duterte’s former economic adviser, to the officials of Pharmally.
Drilon, a member of the committee, questioned the mode of transaction that the government opted to enter for the procurement of face masks and face shields that was flagged by COA.
Drilon noted that the Department of Budget and Management had explained that the PPEs were costly due to tight supply, yet it contacted several suppliers, including Pharmally, instead of entering into a government-to-government transaction.
The senator said the Philippines could have saved P284 million had it entered into a government-to-government transaction. — DVM, GMA News
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