DESPITE the transfer of $100 million to the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in 2019 by the Region Nine administration for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies, the reconciliation has revealed that the region had only obtained around $57 million worth of supplies.
The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) disclosed this information on Monday while reviewing the Auditor General’s 2019 report for Region Nine.

In this report, it was noted that though sums totalling $100M were transferred by way of an inter-departmental warrant to the Ministry of Public Health, financial returns have shown that the full amount was expended, and at that time the region had not received a listing of drugs and medical supplies from the MoPH, and it could not be determined if the full value was received.

When asked if they had received the full listing, the Regional Executive Officer, Karl Singh told the committee that the region has not received the full list.
“No, not fully, we warranted $100 million to the ministry of health; we would have managed to reconcile $57,783,212. We have an outstanding balance of $42,216,788 that we didn’t manage to reconcile,” the REO explained.

In this context, Minister of Public Works Bishop Juan Edghill inquired about the Ministry of Public Health’s explanation for the shortage of drugs, to which the REO acknowledged that no explanation had been provided.
This prompted Edghill to inquire if the region had adequate drugs and medical supplies, seeing that there was a shortfall of almost 40 per cent of the warranted amount.

Singh told the committee, “Based on the listing we received and the cost of drugs distributed by MMU (Materials Management Unit), it is clear that we had a shortfall; there’s no explanation as to why we had a shortfall or received short drugs, but this is our findings.”
Edghill further noted that there must be some record to show whether at the MMU there was stock that was not dispersed or payment that was not spent.
The minister further lamented that this shortfall amounts to a substantial amount of drugs that the region was without at the time.

Following this, he emphasised the need for a structured process overseen by the Audit Office to ensure requested items are received and reconciled.