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Thursday, November 10, 2005
Bird flu funds grounded, for now, by Sars probe
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Only P400,000 of the P5-million Sars fund the Cebu City Council appropriated in 2003 was used by the different health agencies in the city, the council found out yesterday.
The council also learned that since there was no case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) recorded in Cebu, the supplies the City bought using the Sars fund were used for other purposes.
Since the department heads and other city officials could not identify all the supplies bought and where these supplies were distributed, the council directed the Office of the City Accountant to look into all the expenses made using the Sars fund.
City Accountant Edna Jaca said she still has to verify their records but according to her staff, they do not remember any purchases charged to the Sars calamity fund.
Report
Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera, chairperson of the council’s committee on budget and finance, gave the accounting office until Nov. 17 to report their findings to the council.
Except for the P400,000 that was used to buy masks, gloves and medicine, officials of the City Health Department, General Services Office and the city accountant could not tell the council yesterday what other items were bought.
“The total amount was not released then but we also cannot say that the funds are lost,” Pesquera said.
She invited representatives of the health agencies to the council session to apprise them on how the Sars fund was used, to make sure there will be no redundancy in purchases to help fight bird flu.
At the session yesterday, some councilors and guests at the gallery could not help but laugh when the different health agencies pointed fingers at each other when asked who were the end-users of the purchased supplies.
Used elsewhere
“This seems to be funny, but this is no laughing matter. We have to get to the bottom of this because we have a mandate to see to it that there is no wastage of public funds and this involves the taxpayers’ money,” Councilor Edgardo Labella said during the discussion.
Former City Health Department chief Felicitas Manaloto said that during the Sars scare in May 2003, they bought 1,000 gloves worth P1,190, 200 masks worth P 180,000 and medicine worth P218,049.
But since there was no Sars case in the city and CCMC and other private hospitals referred all suspected Sars cases to North General Hospital, the supplies were used for other purposes.
“There was no Sars case so the masks were used by sanitary inspectors in the anti-dengue campaign, while the gloves were used by the nurses and midwives in the health centers during deliveries,” Manaloto told the council.
CCMC Chief Myrna Go said the hospital did not get any amount from the Sars fund that time.
Pending
DOH and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center officials also told the council yesterday that they did not receive supplies or money from the City’s Sars funds.
A representative from the GSO said they processed a purchase order for the printing of posters used as information materials on Sars. This amounted to P14,000. But they could not explain who were the recipients.
Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. said the council has to find out immediately where the Sars fund went, as there are pending resolutions for the appropriation of calamity funds.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo has a pending resolution appropriating P3 million to fight dengue fever and is proposing to charge P31 million to the calamity fund to fight bird flu.
The latter amount will include expenses for the renovation of the City-owned condominium that will serve as a quarantine facility, Pe said.
(November 10, 2005 issue)
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