The Public Accounts Committee has deliberated in its inquiry of the Health department’s procurement and distribution of drugs and will be proceeding to table its reported findings and recommendations in the coming parliament sitting in August.
This was made known during a media conference earlier this afternoon by a quorum of PAC members.
A draft report of the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry into the health departments; specifically the procurement and distribution has proceed to its full stage of completion; ready to be presented in parliaments next sitting. Given the lapse in time from when the committee sat to date, the inquired report was impeded due to the recent worldwide scare of COIVD- 19.
The chairman highlighting that some findings from the department’s procurement and distribution of drugs have been very alarming; further stating that the final report once presented will also come with recommendations from the committee and alternative solutions going forward.
“Our inquiry has been about all the public funds that has gone into the procurement of drugs; revealing also a lot of failures in the part of NDoH in the way it has conducted itself. The findings have been alarming.”
The next part of the inquiry will be on the health department’s use of public funds will commence and that the Education department will be next in line to come under PAC’s scrutiny.
“The inquiry will continue into the use of the public funds. Notices will be further served for more information that the committee will require to analyse and people will be brought before the committee to provide evidence.
Adding that the next committee will also be concluding its inquiry into the old parliament house soon.
Despite the committee playing its role in keeping state agencies in check, the committee also expressed disappointed at the lack of support and clarity from sovereign participants to provide answers to conclude reports.
Adding that letters will again be sent to them to participate in upcoming PAC inquiries and that the committee might require their compliance in this meetings.
“A few parties we are disappointed respectively; whilst they may have the protection of indemnities as sovereign citizens working in PNG, AusAid for that matter have not been able to come before the committee. We would have appreciated if they had provided to us answers to some of the questions we wanted answers to.
By Annette Kora, EMTV News, Port Moresby
