Health workers angry over 'deficiencies' found in audit of DOH pandemic spending
MANILA, Philippines — Health workers' groups whose members have been waiting for benefits and allowances said they are even more angry at not receiving them after state auditors flagged "deficiencies" in the Department of Health's COVID-19 spending.
The Commission on Audit in its yearly report said these deficiencies "contributed to the challenges encountered and missed opportunities by the DOH during the state of calamity/national emergency."
Maristela Abenojar, president of Filipino Nurses United, said they were surprised and angered to find out a huge amount of funds from the DOH were "unutilized or misutilized."
"They have betrayed the public's trust," she told Philstar.com. "These are people's money and as people's money, they are accountable [for] every single centavo."
Abenojar said they had already proposed some measures the government could take to strengthen its pandemic response. That included a call for mass hiring of nurses as additional health workers in COVID referral hospitals and barangays. She said these suggestions went unheeded.
The DOH eventually shifted to emergency hiring, which Abenojar said is a form of contractualization, as medical workers are hired as contract of service with no benefits accorded to them.
"Now that we learned about the P67.32 billion, we feel so angry about this because it only shows the misprioritization of our government and their outright neglect to the concerns or the plight of our health workers," she added.
Robert Mendoza, who leads the Alliance of Health Care Workers, shared Abenojar's sentiment.
He told Philstar.com that getting benefits and incentives for medical personnel is difficult despite allocations in the coronavirus aid measures Bayanihan to Heal As One and Bayanihan to Recover As One laws.
"If we don't organize a rally, hold a dialogue, or send letters to the president, they will continue to withhold the benefits and it's as if the DOH wants health workers to plead," he said.
'Hard to believe'
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has maintained that COVID-19-related funds have all been accounted for. But that's a remark the groups found hard to believe.
"You know that there is an Audit Observation Memorandum and based on that, COA saw deficiencies so how can you say that these are fully accounted for?" Mendoza said, adding it was stated that DOH did not submit documents and receipts to support their transaction.
Lawmakers have since called for an investigation on the DOH's pandemic spending.
But for Abenojar, it's time for President Rodrigo Duterte to take into account COA's findings and prove he does not tolerate corruption in government.
"[He] kept on repeating this in his past State of the Nation Address that he will fight corruption," she said, "that you will make sure that under his administration, there will be no anomalies, that there will be proper utilization of the funds."
COA, in a rare statement on August 13, sought to clarigy that its findings made no mention of funds lost due to corruption. It added that deficiencies resulted from the non-submission of documents, which the DOH can still turn in. — Philstar.com intern Siegfred Aldous Lacerna
- Latest
- Trending
