Joint probe on CHC dialysis set

The Senate and the House of Representatives will hold a joint investigation on the funding mess involved in the Commonwealth Health Center’s hemodialysis project.

House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr. said yesterday that both chambers would pursue the issue together.

At the same time, he said that House speaker Benigno R. Fitial has asked the Office of the Public Auditor to look into the matter.

“There’s going to be a Senate and House joint committee to investigate [the hemodialysis project]. The speaker also called on the OPA to audit the project to see if there’s any infraction,” said Reyes.

He said that there is “bipartisan consensus” on the conduct of the investigation.

“The minority lawmakers also want this investigated to make sure that it’s not repeated. They also want to make sure that dialysis patients are adequately treated,” he said.

The House earlier approved to reprogram $5.8 million of Kagman wastewater funds to complete the “under-funded” hemodialysis project.

The bill is now up for approval by the Senate.

Senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes said the upper chamber is ready to approve the proposal but this does not prevent them from conducting a probe of the matter.

“We want to pass the bill because this is for a good cause…But we’d make sure that the players—those responsible for the mess—will be held accountable so we’ll go ahead with the investigation,” said Reyes.

Reyes also said the Senate would ask the U.S. Inspector General to audit the project.

“This project involves federal funds. It appears that there’s a lot of mismanagement, misappropriation, and even malfeasance on the part of participants,” he said.

The Babauta administration earlier asked the Legislature to approve the reprogramming of funds for the hemodialysis project, citing that the original appropriation has been depleted with a remaining balance of only $857,000.

The hemodialysis project was originally given $11 million from Covenant 702 funds but the funding was depleted due to several changes.

The hemodialysis project was originally awarded to Leo Daly amounting to about $800,000 but due to “unacceptable work” the government entered into a redesign project with Tanaguchi Ruth for nearly $900,000.

The government also awarded $5.6 million to AIC Marianas to construct the facility.

The dialysis facility is expected to be completed by next year.