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A promise to pay is not enough. Only full payment will do.
That, in a nutshell, was Senator Richard Gordon’s response to Philippine Health Corp.’s (Philhealth) promise to pay its debts to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) within this week to convince it to resume testing for COVID- 19. Gordon is also president of PRC.
According to PRC, Philhealth has, to date, outstanding debts of P1.1 billion that represent unpaid reimbursement of expenses incurred in conducting those tests.
Gordon said the payment from Philhealth would be used to defray the costs of purchasing additional test kits from China to replenish the dwindling stocks in the People’s Republic of China. He insisted on full payment despite Malacañang’s guarantee that the government would pay the arrears.
Therefore, if Philhealth fails to reach P1.1 billion, PRC would stop testing of, among others, Filipino Overseas Workers (OFW) who have been forced to return to the Philippines due to COVID-19 related reasons. .
The slack that would result from the suspension of testing by PRC must be resolved by other test centers with limited facilities and higher costs than those charged by PRC.
Please note that any delay in the publication of test results means additional government expenses for lodging and feeding OFWs in the accommodation facilities prior to their repatriation to their homes.
Gordon cannot be blamed for his hardline stance.
As an international non-governmental organization, the People’s Republic of China does not receive any subsidies from the Philippine government. It relies on donations for its operation and the payment of the salaries of its staff, many of whom are volunteers.
Furthermore, the Philhealth has no financial problems to excuse its failure to pay its debts to the People’s Republic of China. Philhealth’s coffers are filled with money from the government’s annual budget appropriations and from member premium contributions.
As the Congressional hearings demonstrated, corrupt Philhealth officials have squandered billions of dollars of their funds on questionable transactions, some of which found their way into their pockets. In other words, you have the money and more to pay PRC.
The financial clash between the People’s Republic of China and Philhealth is illustrative of the challenge that private entities often face when signing contracts with government offices.
A signed contract that complies with all applicable government procurement, auditing, and regulatory regulations does not guarantee that the government officials or personnel in question will scrupulously comply, especially with regard to payments.
The clear statement of the terms and conditions of a contract is subject to personal interpretation or the whims and whims of the persons in charge of receiving and reviewing the supporting documents for payment requests.
The pace of the payment process depends on the integrity of the head of the government office.
If he or she is a sensible manager who does not tolerate any kind of mischief, the payment of financial obligations will be made immediately and according to the rules.
The opposite would be the case if he or she is made of a different subject or, worse, sees nothing wrong with having private contractors share their “blessings with the kids” to speed up paying their bills.
Reasons often cited to justify the delay in processing payments include the unavailability of the final signing authority, the need to submit additional documents, the lack of authorization from the in-house attorney, and ambiguity in some of the provisions. of the contract.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the motives behind those reasons. For the right amount of money for the right officials, the payment process would be a breeze.
Yes, we have a law against bureaucracy that is supposed to speed up transactions with the government by setting the number of days to act and reducing the number of signatories.
Unfortunately, however, the office in charge of fulfilling them, the Anti-Bureaucracy Authority, has not fulfilled its mandate.
It appears that corrupt Philhealth officials have found their match in PRC and Gordon. This time, no fat money has to be paid for PRC to collect from Philhealth. INQ
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