LAWMAKERS today questioned the Health Ministry (MOH) over defective Covid-19 supplies and equipment waste during the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report debate.

Among the issues debated this afternoon were the supply of defective ventilators, the extremely low usage of personal protection equipment (PPE) as well as the MySejahtera data breach that happened in 2021.

Jimmy Puah (Pakatan Harapan-Tebrau) said MOH did not conduct proper documentation with its suppliers.

“136 units of ventilators were purchased by the ministry but only 28 of them could be used, which left the ministry with 108 damaged units.

“Out of the 108, only 15 of them were returned to the manufacturer for replacement.

“As many as 93 ventilator units supplied by a company worth RM13 million could not be used due to defects,” said Puah.

He added that there were no appointment documents for the procurement of ventilators between the supplier and the ministry.

As of end-2022, the accumulated outlays of the Covid-19 fund amounted to RM106.7 billion, or 97% of the total ceiling of RM110 billion, of which RM31 billion was spent in 2022.

The bulk of the allocation was channelled to cash assistance programmes (RM40 billion), wage subsidies (RM24.3 billion) and Covid-19-related expenses to enhance health equipment and bedding capacity in hospital intensive care units as well as to procure test kits, reagents, medicines and sanitsers (RM5.3 billion), the Finance Ministry (MOF) said in its Updates on Economic & Fiscal Outlook and Revenue Estimates 2023 released in February.

Putrajaya also reprioritised available allocation from the fund to partly accommodate spending for fuel and electricity subsidies amounting to RM6.3 billion and RM5.9 billion, respectively. – June 6, 2023.