ThE Department of Health (DOH) has failed to start or complete P909 million worth of infrastructure projects, thus, depriving many Filipinos access to better health care.
The Commission on Audit (COA) reported that the DOH was unable to begin or finish the construction of health facilities in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Region 6 (Western Visayas), Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula), Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), Region 12 (Central Mindanao) and Region 13 (Caraga), the camp of Vice President Jejomar C. Binay said in a statement.
The COA said this was due mostly to the failure of contractors to meet the construction deadline of said projects or to structural defects that were identified by inspectors.
Joey Salgado, head of the Vice President’s Media Affairs Office, said, “The DOH should have done something about this. Its officials should have monitored the projects and ensured the completion of these projects considering that government funds are involved.”
Salgado also noted that a COA 2014 report on the DOH showed that infrastructure projects worth P836,038,564.68 of eight DOH regional offices were not completed or even started within the specified contract time as of December 31, 2014.
The COA also said eight health facilities with worth a total of P72.983 million were not utilized despite their completion.
Salgado said the Vice President has always upheld that health programs for the Filipinos should be given priority, thus, projects for health benefits must be facilitated and made available to as many Filipinos as possible.
Binay noted in his True State of the Nation Address on August 3 that six of 10 Filipinos died without getting the medical attention they deserved.
“It is sad that while the budget has been allotted, the health facilities in eight regions were not completed, were not even started or were not used at all,” Salgado added.
The COA said, “The causes of delay were mostly on the fault of the contractors, which could have been immediately resolved had management [DOH] properly monitored and supervised the implementation of these infrastructure projects.”
The provinces where construction of facilities has not started are Palawan, Agusan del Sur and Dinagat Island.
The regions with infrastructure projects that have not been completed within the contract time include CAR, Region 6, Region 9, Region 10, and Region 12 and Region 13.
The regions that have completed facilities that remain unused are Region 4B (Mimaropa), Region 6 and Region 7 (Central Visayas).
The COA said in its 2014 report that, “The primary consideration of the government for entering into a contract is the timely completion of the infrastructure projects so that the intended benefits may be achieved.
The contracting parties are bound to adhere faithfully to agreed terms and conditions of the contract.”
The COA cited DOH Department Order 2008-0162 dated July 7, 2008, which provides the guidelines and procedures for the implementation of the Government Hospital Upgrading Project under CY 2008 Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) Funds of the DOH.
The HFEP is aimed at supporting one of the DOH’s strategic approaches to improve “delivery of basic, essential, as well as specialized health services through the rationalization and critical upgrading of health facilities nationwide.”
This includes “parallel revitalization of primary health-care facilities and the rationalization of the various levels of hospitals” to decongest hospitals, ensure primary health-care delivery and strengthen capabilities and potentials of health facilities to make basic and essential health care accessible and available to as many Filipinos as possible.