COA: Questionable transaction  on VSMMC-owned lots continues

The questionable transaction between officials of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for allowing a private group to use hospital-owned lots for commercial purposes is found out to have continued despite an advice of the Commission on Audit to put a stop to such because it is disadvantageous to the government.

Hospital-owned lots with numbers 532-C and 517-C situated right beside the 500-bed state-owned tertiary hospital along B. Rodriguez Street in Cebu City is said to be covered with a 50-year lease agreement between the Southern Islands Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association, Inc. 

The name Southern Islands Hospital was changed to VSMMC more than a decade ago in honor of the illustrious Vicente Yap Sotto, known as “Nyor Inting”, a former senator and considered as one of the greatest statesmen and Cebuanos of the 20th century.

The COA has strongly recommended that the hospital officials should exhaust all means to get back possession of the property because allowing it to be used for private commercial purposes violates the basic principle that government property must be used for public purpose.

The state auditors learned that the hospital’s nursing school alumni association constructed a commercial building on the government lot with the consent of a former Secretary of Health.

The COA report said that the cultural center was used by the students, alumni and employees of the hospital or even the public for any school-related activity and presentations.

It was verified that for several years now, the alumni association has leased the cultural center to at least 10 entities, among them a review center that has been paying a monthly rental of P50,000.

The hospital’s cashier had told the state auditors that VSMMC has not received any rental fees neither from the alumni association nor from the entities renting the center.

“The chief of hospital must exhaust all means to recover possession of the subject lot primarily because the nursing school alumni association is a private entity. Legal or any other assistance should be immediately requested from the central office of the Department of Health in order to get back possession of the property,” COA said.

COA learned that the lease agreement was to allow the alumni association to use the lot for a period of 50 years and the association is required to pay only P1 per month as rental fee. — Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV