DOH has P2.2-billion worth of expired, overstocked medicines, supplies – COA

Commission on Audit (COA) report revealed the Department of Health (DOH) has P2.2 billion worth of expired, nearly expired medicines and dental and medical supplies.

COA said poor procurement planning, lack of monitoring, improper storage, and inefficient and uncoordinated transfer/distribution resulted in the billion pesos worth of expired and overstocked medicines and supplies.

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Such mismanagement, COA said, violated Section 2 of the Government Auditing Code, which states that “all resources of the government should be managed, expended or utilized in accordance with law and regulations, and safeguarded against loss or wastage through illegal or improper disposition, with a view to ensuring efficiency, economy, and effectiveness in the operations of government.”

P29 million of the P2.2 billion were expired, P1.14 billion were overstocked, and P1 billion were near expiry.

“The occurrence of these expired, overstocked, and nearly expired inventory items is a manifestation of an excessive expenditure since items were procured more than what is needed. It is a result of poor inventory/supply management system covering procurement planning, monitoring, storage, and acceptance/issuance/transfer/distribution of goods,” COA said.

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DOH has P2.2-billion worth of expired, overstocked medicines, supplies – COA

“Essentially, the existence of this conditions affects the curative efficacy of drugs and medicines and wastage of government funds, thus, failing to deliver a quality health care services,” it added.
COA recommended the DOH to take the following measures to address the findings:
  • review the contracts, especially those of existing suppliers
  • exercise prudence in the use of government resources by ensuring that procurement is limited to those immediately needed or for the current year requirement
  • strictly implement the timeline on the distribution/transfer of the inventories
  • expedite the distribution of the nearly expired medicines
  • formulate internal control policies necessary to minimize the occurrence of expired drugs such as establishing adequate control on custodianship, issuances, and stock level monitoring through the maintenance of inventory database or computerized system, among others.

The 2019 national budget allotted P15 billion for the procurement medicines, vaccines, medical and dental supplies to be distributed to different health care facilities nationwide.

Of the said allocation, 80% should have been dedicated to provinces.

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