Thursday, September 14, 2006
P35M food and drugs bureau building still not used
CEBU CITY -- An official of the Department of Health (DOH) 7 denied reports that the P35.5 million used in building the Bureau of Food and Drugs (Bfad) laboratory in Mandaue City was wasted.
Although DOH Assistant Regional Director Lakshmi Legaspi admitted that the Bfad 7 laboratory is still not fully operational, this is only because the equipment needed for its operations have not been bought yet.
Only parts of the satellite laboratory for Central Visayas, located in Barangay Jagobiao in Mandaue City, remain unused, she said.
She further explained that the structure cannot be occupied yet because there are still no piping and insulation systems.
In its report for 2005, the Commission on Audit (COA) pointed out that some laboratories, which cost Bfad P99.6 million to build, remained unused "due to certain structural defects, defective water systems and the lack of laboratory equipment to make them fully operational."
As a result, the cost of the completed buildings has not yet been transferred to Bfad's asset account, and continue to be listed as "construction in progress."
Apart from the Cebu facility, a lab in Davao that cost P37.7 million and an annex lab in Manila that cost P26.3 million were mentioned in the COA report. Work on the Cebu laboratory started in the year 2000.
Now, the Bfad Central Visayas office is concerned about the safety of the laboratory personnel, considering the operations involve the use of gas.
Legaspi said they have to ensure that the building is safe for occupancy to prevent an accident similar to what happened in Mandaue City last Monday, where a leaking liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank caused an explosion that killed two people.
ABS-CBN's Bandila program reported recently that most of the DOH funds appropriated for the construction of government hospitals and laboratories have been wasted, since most of the structures remain unused.
The report scrutinized the P35.5-million Bfad building in Cebu because it reportedly remains unoccupied.
But Legaspi explained that the building is not completely idle, since the laboratory has been used for water analysis and calibration of equipment since last year.
With the additional P30 million that they expect to receive in 2007 for the purchase of the equipment, Legaspi said the laboratory will be fully operationally by next year.
"It is not the DOH's fault that we were overtaken by an increase in the price of the equipment," said Legaspi, adding that the increase caused the delay in the purchase.
Once the satellite laboratory fully operates, Bfad 7 Regulation Officer Monina Coyoca said they will be able to conduct drug analysis and release the results faster.
At present, drugs purchasing within the DOH and the local government units (LGUs) is done at the Bfad central office in Manila and would take more than a month, because samples have to be mailed.
Also, the time constraint is aggravated since drug analyses requested by all regional offices are done there.
Coyoca said that 10 percent of all the medicines purchased by the DOH and the LGUs have to be analyzed for efficacy and to ensure that these are not counterfeit drugs. (JGA of Sun.Star Cebu)
(September 14, 2006 issue)
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