COA begins reviewing government vax procurement

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has begun reviewing documents of the government’s vaccine procurement after the Department of Health (DOH) turned over unredacted contracts related to the Duterte administration’s multibillion-peso procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.

Following disagreements between the two agencies on how the overdue audit should be conducted, Sen. Francis Tolentino said yesterday the turnover of documents after months of back-and-forth discussions was one of the accomplishments of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

Tolentino, chairman of the panel, disclosed that the process of review has commenced following a preliminary hearing on the government vaccine procurement last Dec. 14 before Congress went on Christmas break.

“After our preliminary hearing, our first hearing, we accomplished two things: we agreed that the Solicitor General should review the contracts of government, especially if there are international considerations; and second, the (vaccine procurement) contracts have already been turned over by the DOH to the COA,” Tolentino told dzBB partly in Filipino.

He said the documents, which included non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with vaccine makers, that were given to the COA were the “complete and unedited versions.”

During the hearing, some documents on the 2020 and 2021 vaccine procurement presented were redacted.

“They (critics) can’t say nothing is happening (in Blue Ribbon hearings)
because this (turnover) as this means the COA can continue its audit according to its mandate,” the senator said.

The World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank have reportedly loaned a total of $1.2 billion to the Philippines to finance the procurement of vaccines.

The WB and ADB have sought an audit of the disbursement of the loan proceeds earlier this year. The COA last month told senators that the audit could not proceed as officials of the DOH and Department of Finance have invoked the NDAs.

DOH officer-in-charge Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire told the committee the agency earlier sought permission from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer, Sinovac and Sputnik to disclose details of their procurement contracts.

However, only AstraZeneca and Pfizer agreed to have information disclosed but under discreet arrangements, Vergeire said.

Tolentino said the committee will hold one or two more hearings, but will focus on the wastage of at least 44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the aim of coming up with policy recommendations to prevent such in the future.