The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered a six-month suspension without pay of three officials from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. amid allegations of corruption, questionable procurement of overpriced information technology (IT) equipment and falsification of bidding documents to favor several bidders.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered the suspension of senior vice president Jovita Aragona, acting senior manager of the IT and Management department Calixto Gabuya Jr. and bids and awards committee secretariat Elena Castismo of PhilHealth-National Capital Region office for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.
He directed PhilHealth president Dante Gierran to implement the order.
The order is “immediately executory and shall not be interrupted within the period prescribed notwithstanding any motion, appeal, or petition that may be filed by the respondents seeking relief from this Consolidated Order,” he invoked.
“Respondents, by virtue of their positions, facilitated these anomalies,” the Nov. 5 order read.
“Further, they affixed their signatures on official documents causing the falsification of these documents, and procurement of IT equipment in gross violation of Republic Act 9184, the COA (Commission on Audit) rules and regulations, DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) Guidelines on the procurement of IT equipment, and other applicable laws, rules and regulations on the issuance of IT budget, to the great detriment of PhilHealth,” it stated.
In October, the Ombudsman suspended eight PhilHealth officials in connection with the alleged irregular disbursement of P2.709 billion funds from the interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) to various hospitals and health-care institutions in Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, Gierran will seek the approval of the medical state insurer's board to increase its dialysis coverage to 133 sessions per year from the current 90, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Tuesday.
Top officials of PhilHealth are fighting allegations that they pocketed some P15 billion in state funds, and approved overpriced projects and fund releases to supposedly favored hospitals.