The Commission on Audit has called the attention of the Office of the Vice President for its slow use of medical assistance program funds for indigent patients in 2019.
Its audit report said that the OVP has yet to use its P122.8-million pending medical assistance program funds for last year now totaling at P195 million.
COA said there were lesser patients who benefited from the program, a breach of Presidential Decree 1445 or the Auditing Code of the Philippines.
The OVP had P317.9 million worth of recorded obligation but only 38.64 percent or P122.8 million had been delivered to hospitals servicing patients endorsed by the OVP.
“Table 3 also shows that the bigger chunk of the unutilized fund comes from Hospital Fund Transfer, which pertains to fund transfers and funds obligated to Government Hospitals-Implementing Agencies to pay for the GLs (guarantee letter) being provided to qualified individuals,” the report read