Sunday, August 12, 2007 Pencil-pushing made P2.9M vanish, says staff
MONEY from a Cebu City congressman’s medical aid program was siphoned out through the clever manipulation of documents, a former aide has told state auditors.
According to James Yrastorza, ex-staff member turned Commission on Audit (COA) witness, businessman Wendell Villacin forged documents, like hospital referral slips and medical prescriptions, so claim-vouchers could be processed and he could collect payment.
Villacin, Yrastorza said, claimed at least P2.9 million of the P3.2 million total paid for the program in 2004, although no medicines were ever given to the beneficiaries.
Villacin’s pharmacy was the exclusive supplier of all medicines used in the medical program, Yrastorza added.
Here’s how it worked: Yrastorza said that Villacin first got pre-approved blank referral forms from a relative of the congressman.
He then allegedly filled up the forms with fictitious names, addresses and numbers. Medical prescriptions were then written for anti-rabies or medicines for hypertensive patients on official VSMMC prescription pads.
Then, together with sales invoices from Dell Pharmacy, these documents were handed to one of the staff members for processing.
The inclusion of the sales invoice gave the impression that the patient whose name was indicated on the referral slip went to Dell Pharmacy and claimed the prescribed medicine on the date mentioned in the invoice.
A voucher was then drawn up and submitted to the hospital pharmacy, to check the documentation, then to the office of the Medical Chief for approval and to the cashier for the release of the checks.
As the term implies, a ghost purchase in government transactions is when one supposedly buys something but nothing is delivered.
Yrastorza recalled that auditors from the Commission on Audit went to see him in January 2005 and asked him for details about the purchases. This happened months after he told Cuenco about the alleged anomaly and resigned from Cuenco’s staff.
He said he told the auditors everything he knew and signed an affidavit on Aug. 31, 2005.
Yrastorza yesterday said he is willing to take a lie detector test before the National Bureau of Investigation.
He clarified that the medical program did cater to the needs of its target beneficiaries and that more money went into medicines that were eventually given to the needy, than what was siphoned off. (KNR)
