MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit flagged the Department of Budget and Management’s procurement service over surgical masks and face shields worth P95.46 million that were too expensive for state agencies to buy.
The COA said in its annual audit report that the procurement service, which acts like a shop for government agencies, bought surgical masks and face shields when market prices were “so high.” In turn, state auditors said government agencies refuse to buy these medical supplies essential in the fight against COVID-19 due to their high prices.
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At the time that the procurement service bought these medical supplies, the Department of Health set a suggested retail price of P28 per surgical mask, while local traders quoted face shields at P120 apiece.
The procurement service used this as a benchmark in its negotiated procurements with seven companies, which sold surgical masks ranging from P13.50 to P27.72 each and face shields at P120 each.
These items were delivered to the procurement service in May 2020. Regional depots, however, only received the masks and face shields after local prices dropped.
As of December 31, 2020, the DOH suggested retail price for masks stands at P2 to P4 apiece, while face shields cost P26 to P50 each. The procurement service, meanwhile, sells masks at a much higher price of P14.04 per piece and face shields at P124.80 per piece.
This resulted in government agencies opting not to buy from the procurement service, which led to 2,760,567 pieces of masks and 484,902 face shields idling in warehouses.
“There is a wide gap between the PS selling prices and DOH SRPs. As a result, surgical face masks and face shields are now slow-moving items in the warehouses of the RDs (regional depots),” COA said.
“Many client-agencies opted not to purchase from PS due to the high selling prices of the items,” it added.
The COA said the PS had from May 2020 to September 2020, when the DOH began implementing the new SRPs, to sell the medical supplies at par with the price they bought it and generated P99.27 million in income.
Worse, the COA said, the surgical masks have expiry dates, which means that the PS must be able to sell these before expiration.
“More than the income generated, the PS could have served fellow government employees/healthcare workers through the delivery and sale of these items during the time these were badly/urgently needed,” the COA said.