4 pharmacies get payment from city

CEBU, Philippines - The four pharmacies that were owed by the Cebu City government in the implementation of its assistance to poor patients yesterday got their payment from the City Hall.

The city government has an obligation to Pro-poor pharmaceuticals, Pro-Inay Pharmacy, Dominique Pharmaceuticals and Dell Pharmacy that totaled to P20 million.

The other day, the offices of the city treasurer and accounting signed various disbursement vouchers for the payment.

The city government owed Dominique Pharmacy P6.5 million; Dell Pharmacy P5.9 million and P2.5 million each for Pro-Inay and Pro-poor pharmacy for medicine purchases.

Dr. Myra Rentuza, owner of the Pro-poor pharmacy, said the city paid her P2 million but the other owners of the three other pharmacies declined to divulge how much the city paid them. The city allegedly only paid them 50 percent of the amount.

The Commission on Audit (COA) has suspended the city government’s payment to the pharmacies due to lack of documents on the city’s free medicine program.

State auditors noted several deficiencies, which include the failure to attach various documents together with the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the city and the pharmacies.

The medical assistance was suspended because of the absence of the billing statement with letters of authority and medical prescriptions presented by beneficiaries to the pharmacy at the time the medicines were received.

COA said some beneficiaries of the program could not be classified as poor. Auditors also conducted a random sampling and discovered that seven kinds of drugs had different prices.

The City Assistance for Medicines Program (CAMP) was conceptualized by then mayor now Rep. Tomas Osmeña in October 2009 through Executive Order 09-104. It was then under the Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS).

When Mayor Michael Rama assumed as chief executive in July last year, he penned EO 10-01, which separated the program from DSWS and called it City Hospitalization and Medicines Program (CHAMP). It was expanded to include a coverage of P25,000 in hospitalization assistance in a year. (FREEMAN)