AG report highlights deficiencies in record-keeping of Public Health Ministry

Nov 16, 2018 News

The Ministry of Public Health continues to be in breach of the regulations of proper record keeping of drugs and other supplies.
The Audit Office found that the Ministry failed to keep and maintain a master inventory to document all its assets in keeping with Section 24 of the Stores Regulation.
Additionally, the audit report of 2017 specifically highlighted gaps in the information provided in relation to the distribution of medical supplies in the ten administrative regions.
As such, the Audit Office was unable to verify that the value of drugs sent to the various regions.
According to Auditor General Deodat Sharma, 14 warrants or requests for drugs, were sent to the Public Health Ministry by the regions to procure drugs and medical supplies. The total value of these warrants was $1.7 billion.
Drugs and medical supplies were reportedly received by the regions. However, there was no documentation accompanying the medical supplies received, and the value of the units.
As a consequence, the Auditor General noted that he was unable to account for the cost of medical supplies received by the 10 administrative regions.
“The difference of $42 million was retained in the Consolidated Fund, which included 51 per cent of the warranted amounts for Region Seven and 46 per cent for Region Eight. In addition, the Ministry issued financial returns indicating that it expended the full amounts from seven of the 10 regions, which include Regions Two, Three and Nine,” the Auditor General report stated.
“However, shown in the Appropriation Accounts were three cheques totalling $144 million that was refunded to the Consolidated Fund in January and March 2018, for Regions Two, Three and Nine.”
Minister of Health, Volda Lawrence, had previously noted that gaps and deficiencies in record keeping are part of the issues affecting the management of the drugs. She sought to address the issue.
The Minister noted that through public information and social media there was a need for a review of the way services are delivered at the regional hospital.
Moving forward, she said the ministry will continue to implement training and capacity building programmes to address this.
“Also, these programmes will address the gap in human resources. At the New Amsterdam Hospital, the greater of the issues is that of human resources and that spreads across the regions so I am very happy that our training programmes are seeking to meet those gaps which we have,” Minister Lawrence added.
“Moving forward, the Health Ministry team and the Ministry of Communities along with the regional administrations for health were set to meet to resolve gaps related to human resources.”
Further, other areas regarding infrastructure, medical supplies and equipment and other areas of concern have been considered by the Minister.
She said the hospitals’ management will work closely to ensure that there are evident changes and improvement in services and working conditions.
“Certainly, I will be meeting with the region and the Ministry of Communities to address the many vacancies we have, and most of those vacancies are in the area of management and supervision and as a result of that, we have a lot of disparities in terms of persons’ working ability and their performance level,” Lawrence said.

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AG report highlights deficiencies in record-keeping of Public Health Ministry

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