MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (CoA) yesterday rejected two laboratory equipment delivered to the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (DJNRMH) for failing to meet the standards set by the hospital.

CoA auditors said the two equipment costing the government hospital P2.295 million were found to be “non-compliant with the required specifications” indicated in the purchase orders, and they showed be either returned or substituted by the suppliers.

State audit examiners claimed the Versa Trek Blood Culture System and Automated Clinical Chemistry Analyzer delivered by two different suppliers last year prevented the hospital from providing “the proper examination procedures to its client which is the primary objective of the procurement.”

The Levins International Corporation reportedly won the bidding for the blood culture system when it offered P3 million for the equipment, while Maystar Company was awarded the clinical chemistry analyzer costing P1,295,000.

The annual audit report for the DJNRMH indicated that the hospital had accepted the laboratory equipment even before the CoA technical audit specialist could inspect the deliveries.

According to the report, the technical inspector discovered that the equipment delivered by Levin had “actually 10 drawers with four drawers functional” that could accommodate a maximum annual bottle volume of 7,000 for five-day blood culture.

The delivered equipment was reportedly different from the one specified in the purchase order which requires “240 configurations with maximum annual bottle volume of 17,700 for five-day blood culture.”

Represented by Kenneth Enrile, Levins International justified the delivery by insisting that the microbiological set up of the delivered equipment could be expanded to “make room” for the requirements of the hospital.

However, CoA stressed that “we find the justification offered untenable. The present needs for microbiology procedure is not the issue in this instance but rather the delivery of 10 with only four drawers functional. There is a need to wait for the workload expansion before the remaining drawers can be activated.”

With regards to the automated chemistry analyzer, the supplier delivered an Erba XL-200 which can allow 200 tests per hour without sodium, potassium and chloride (ISE) examination.

Government auditors noted that the specified equipment requires 360 tests per hour with ISE examinations.

“We agree that the supplied machine has 200 tests per hour which is twice the hospital’s requirement. However, it is clearly stated in the bid documents that the offer has 360 tests per hour with ISE hence, the delivery should conform with the quoted specifications,” CoA stated.

The audit examiners also noted that medical technologists of the hospital have confirmed that the delivered laboratory equipment could not perform ISE examination.

CoA said the two suppliers should make the delivered equipment fully compliant with what have been stated in the purchase orders, make replacements or refund the amount paid to them.