Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 14) — Pressed for the release contract details, the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday vowed to submit non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with vaccine manufacturers as early as Thursday.
“We are already preparing and we will be submitting as soon as possible… maybe tomorrow,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing.
The Senate probe was suspended after DOH allegedly refused to release details of COVID-19 vaccine procurement contracts over confidentiality issues.
But National Auditor Gamaliel Cordoba said COA – having the constitutional power to examine government expenditures – is not bound by any confidentiality agreement.
Former vaccine czar Carlito Calvez also confirmed that the NDA does not bar COA from auditing procurement contracts.
Meanwhile, former Health Secretary Francisco Duque III insisted that the DOH sought a special audit and comprehensive end-to-end performance audit of the contracts from COA.
But COA said it cannot conduct a full audit report on vaccine procurement as the DOH only submitted redacted documents this month.
“Contracts or agreements were not submitted to us, that part we were not able to audit. But we were able to audit other parts of the project,” state auditor Rhodora Ugay said.
[READ: COA eyes legal action to audit COVID-19 vaccine procurement]
The audit body added it requested a copy of the contracts from vaccine manufacturers but they also gave redacted documents.
During the senate hearing, Vergeire also clarified that the 44 million reported wastage of COVID-19 vaccines mostly comes from the private sector (44.82%) and local government units (33.34%).
“Out of the total number that we have procured (134 million doses), only around 2.9 million have expired from this national government procured vaccines,” the undersecretary said.
[RELATED: Wasted Covid-19 vaccines now at 44M, DOH says]
Vergeire said wastage is largely caused by low vaccination rate.
“The current demand for vaccination in the country has declined tremendously. In 2021, we are vaccinating around 3-4 million doses per day. Right now, we are just averaging a total of 18,000-20,000 vaccinations per day,” she said.
Former Finance chief Carlos Dominguez III also defended the health agency and said that 2% wasted vaccines is “not alarming.”
“That is a relatively small amount of loss of national government’s vaccines. Losses happen in every business and activities,” Domiguez said.
[READ: PH fully vaccinates 54 million Filipinos]
Vergeire said 73.7 million people are fully vaccinated, including 21 million with first booster shots. Vergeire reported.
The estimated amount of vaccine wastage among government procured vaccines is at nearly P2 billion, she added.
44-million vaccine wastage
An NDA is a contract that binds two parties from disclosing sensitive information to third groups.
