The ASF requires you to report the exercise of resources destined for the purchase of medicines; warns that Insabi lacks controls for debts and payments to suppliers
The Superior Audit of the Federation ( ASF ) asked the Institute of Health for Wellbeing ( Insabi ) to report on what was exercised more than 3 thousand 453 million pesos that were destined for the purchase of medicines, supplies, and medical equipment during 2020. In the report, the ASF warns about the shortage of medicines due to the irregularities detected.
The report was delivered on June 30 to Insabi’s Internal Control Body, which has until September 1 to respond to the allegations made.
According to audit 04/21, ASF staff determined that Insabi lacks comprehensive controls that allow knowing the record of the debts it has with suppliers, the payments it has made, as well as the pending balances to be made.
From the verification carried out on the liabilities of suppliers as of December 31, 2020, in relation to the activities, functions, procedures, and controls of the various areas that carry out contracts and authorize and/or carry out the payment of suppliers, it was found that no It has comprehensive control over the recording of the liability contracted with suppliers, the payments made and the balances pending payment.
The audit directed to the “National Coordination of Supply of Medicines and Medical Equipment” indicates that, during the review of the contracts, a sample of 15 contracts made with different suppliers for more than 4,888 million pesos was taken.
When conducting the analysis, it was determined that Insabi only provided documentation that supports the payment of 635 million 437 thousand pesos, so 84% of the debt, which amounts to more than three billion pesos, remains to be verified.
In the report, the ASF asked the Health Institute for Well-being to inform the reason why the payment delay originated since the resources were authorized in 2020, as well as to detail what was the destination of the more than three billion pesos.
A detailed report must be prepared and sent to this OIC (Internal Control Body), explaining the justification for the low percentage of 16% of the payment to suppliers, being that the contracts expired on December 31, 2020, as well as informing that derived with the resources authorized for the fiscal year 2020 for 3 thousand 453 million 443 thousand 28 pesos not exercised during the year 2020, and if they were covered under the Adefas system (Debts from Previous Fiscal Years)
The statement of observations made by the Superior Audit of the Federation mentions that the lack of payment controls and debts can cause the shortage of medicines, supplies, as well as medical equipment in hospitals in the country.
It is presumed that this could lead to a shortage of medicines, healing materials, medical equipment, and supplies in hospitals and health service centers, by delaying payment to suppliers and, consequently, in delayed deliveries of goods. , as suppliers do not receive timely payment in accordance with the contractual terms and conditions
The irregularities detected by the Superior Audit of the Federation were evident at the end of last year when personnel and users of the health sector began to warn about the lack of medicines in the country.
In October 2020, La Silla Rota reported that, between 2019 and 2020, the contracts without bidding for more than three billion pesos that the federal government made in the purchase of drugs presented delays in distribution.
The irregularities were detected by this media one month after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that Laboratorios Biológicos y Reactivos de México ( Birmex ) would be the new government drug distributor .
According to the president, the change was made to combat corruption in their purchase, since the beginning of last year the president pointed out that there were companies that were the “spoiled” of the previous government because they were awarded a large part of the contracts in consolidated purchases.
NO CONTROLS FOR THE ACQUISITION OF MEDICINES
In the same audit, ASF staff found that the Institute of Health for Wellbeing lacks market research for the purchase of medicines and equipment, processes for their delivery, as well as processes to meet the requirements of the entities.
The following procedures and programs are lacking: Technical-administrative plans and programs for market research for the acquisition of drugs, medical equipment, and supplies. Procedure for planning, programming, and supervising the supply processes of medicines and supplies; and Processes to coordinate the integration of requirements of the entities adhered to the consolidated purchasing processes
Given the deficiencies identified, the ASF to the National Coordination Unit for the Supply of Medicines and Medical Equipment, issue the instructions to the different coordinations to carry out a work program to specify the methods of administration and control of the medicines, of the healing material, medical equipment, and supplies.
In the same audit, it is also mentioned that Insabi has not defined the procedures for the coordination of “optimization and supply processes” of medicines, supplies and equipment for health services that are granted to people who do not have social security.
The latest observation made by the ASF details that the Insabi Coordination of Legal Affairs does not sign the procurement contracts that the institution celebrates, so the institute does not have legal resources to demand compliance with the contracts, as well as damages caused.
From the verification carried out to the Procurement Contracts that Insabi celebrates with suppliers, it was found that these are not signed by the Coordination of Legal Affairs, therefore there is no certainty that the contractual clause is favorable for Insabi, and the reciprocity of the supplier is advantageous and/or non-compliance and the contractual support is lacking to demand compliance or compensation for the goods, services or for the damage caused
These irregularities are alerted by the ASF, a few months before (March 2021) that the Mexican Association of Pharmaceutical Research Industries ( AMIIF ) warned about a shortage of medicines because the Insabi has not generated the contracts or issued the formal guidelines for the logistics operators, on reception, safekeeping and final destination of drugs.
A month later, La Silla Rota reported that at the end of February the Insabi issued an official letter in which it notified that not all the drug codes were purchased through the consolidated purchase carried out by the United Nations Office of Services for Projects ( UNOPS ), for which it gave the order to the institutions of the Health Sector to make extraordinary purchases.
The irregularities detected by this means of communication also include the expenditure of almost 3 thousand 800 million pesos through contracts without bidding, for the contracting of the logistics, distribution, and storage of medicines service between the years 2019 and 2020.
Source: lasillarota.com
