MANILA – Former Health secretary Janette Garin blamed contractor J-Bros Construction Corp. for the non-completion of the school-based Barangay Health Stations (BHS) project.
The BHS project aimed to build 5,700 school-based rural health units to ensure that villages have access to primary health care.
Of the 3,200 target BHS, only 270 were built for Phase I of the project.
Garin insisted she cannot be held accountable.
“I was there in the initial months (of implementation),” she told the Senate committee on health and demography on Wednesday. “Whatever happened during the implementation after my time, hindi ko alam ang nangyari.”
Incumbent Health secretary Francisco Duque III has accused Garin of diverting PhilHealth funds meant for senior citizens to the BHS project in 2015.
Now Garin is facing a corruption complaint over alleged irregularities in the procurement process for the P10.6-billion project.
“Looking at the documents and asking the people, posibleng may mali ang contractor at hindi niya natapos. Dapat panagutan niya iyon,” she said.
In March J-Bros Construction billed the Health department P2.9 billion for the supposed completion of 429 BHS but the department discovered that only 270 were completed.
Garin also criticized the government’s procurement process.
“Ang problema sa procurement process natin, whoever is the lowest bidder is the one that wins,” she said. “Kung hindi natapos, maraming recourse iyan. Pwedeng i-rescind.”
For its part J-Bros Construction said the lack of available space, lack of coordination between the Health and Education departments, and road right-of-way problems led to its failure to complete the target number of BHS.
In March the company terminated its contract with the Health department after the latter “failed to provide all the sites for construction and refused to pay for the request for payment almost a year after it was first filed.”
J-Bros also accused some Health department officials of “unfair practice, capriciousness and bad faith.”
Garin maintained that her conscience is “clear” and denied any existence of corruption in the BHS project.
“Ni singko wala akong kinita sa mga contractor na iyan,” said the former Iloilo congresswoman.
She said the project aims to improve the quality of health care in local governments and decongest state-run hospitals and other health care facilities./PN
Dapat kasi sa mga Contractor na katulad nyan. Kasuhan pag di nila natapos ang contract nila ibalik nila ang pera. Hindi dahilan na di accessible ang lugar dahil pag nag enter ka sa contract ibig sabihin na verify mo ang lugar at aggree ka sa mga contract na matapos mo on time. Sa mga part naman ng DOH dapat din kasuhan ang mga corrupt na official na lantaran humihingi ng kickback sa project tapos tanggalin sa serbisyo at di na pwede mag trabaho sa government saka kasohan at ipakulong pa napatunayan.