Provincial Treasurer Danilo Mendez has confirmed a report by the Commission on Audit that 449 purchases of medicines at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital were not purchased through public bidding since 2013.
Mendez, who is also chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee, told SkyCable News that while the medicine purchase did not go through public bidding, the purchase was done through the procurement process as provided in Republic Act No. 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act of 2003.
He said hospitals who make emergency purchases of medicines worth less than P500,000, may resort to alternative modes of procurement, such as shopping, canvass of three suppliers, or negotiated purchase.
Mendez said the alternative mode is also used by district hospitals in making the emergency purchase of medicines needed by indigents. He said under a bidding process, the shortest period where the hospital could get the medicine is 28 days while the longest is 90 days. “Hospitals and their patients cannot afford to wait that long,” Mendez told reporters.
He said he believes that emergency purchases of medicines not exceeding half-a-million pesos are allowed to be purchased without any bidding, by law.
