Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered a six-month suspension without pay of three Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) officials tagged in the alleged anomalous IT project.
Those suspended were PhilHealth Senior Vice President Jovita Aragona, Acting Senior Manager of PhilHealth IT and Management department Calixto Gabuya, Jr. and Bids and Awards Committee Secretariat Elena Castismo of PhilHealth Regional Office-NCR.
The PhilHealth officials are under investigation over alleged grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.
The preventive suspension is compliant with the Ombudsman law, Martires said.
Likewise, the Ombudsman said, “the six-month suspension order without pay is effective immediately and will not be interrupted within the period prescribed notwithstanding any motion, appeal, or petition that may be filed by respondents seeking relief from the suspension order unless otherwise ordered by the Ombudsman’s office or a competent court.”
The suspension order for the PhilHealth officials was dated November 5.
PhilHealth President Dante Gierran has been ordered to implement the order.
In August, a board member claimed former PhilHealth president Ricardo Morales and other high-ranking officials repeatedly approved alleged overpriced IT equipment, which cost millions of pesos.
Ombudsman suspends 3 PhilHealth execs tagged in ‘anomalous’ IT project
According to Alejandro Cabading, a certified public accountant and a part of Philhealth’s board of directors, the agency’s initial information and technology (IT) budget for 2020 were P2.1 billion. However, the proposal was rejected after the review showed multiple items were either overpriced or were redundant.
Among the allegedly overpriced items in the IT budget of PhilHealth are as follows:
- P21 million for Adobe Master Collection software (DICT approved cost: P168,000)
- P40 million for Application servers and licenses (DICT approved cost: P25 million)
- P5 million for Structured cabling (DICT approved cost: P500,000)
- P42 million for Identity Management software (DICT approved cost: P20 million)
- P21 million for office productivity software (DICT approved cost: P5 million
- P25 million for application servers and virtualization licenses (DICT approved cost: P14.8 million)
The proposal also contains questionable prices, such as two sets of laptops with one costing P4.11 million, while another is worth P115.32 million.
Cabading added another item priced at P98.07 million was only labeled as “three projects.”