AUDITOR General Pamela Monroe Ellis says the South-East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) has been adhering to Government’s procurement guidelines, but practices did not always demonstrate that efforts were being made to ensure that value for money was obtained in making purchases.

She said that, for example, SERHA’s board of directors did not define strategies for regional needs assessment to ensure optimum allocation of resources despite beingresponsible for the procurement of goods and services supplied to nine hospitals and 91 health centres in Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and St Thomas, which comprise the south-east health region and represent 47 per cent of Jamaica’s population.In her report, based on a performance audit done by her department and tabled in the House of Representatives Tuesday, the auditor general explained that the audit was done to determine whether SERHA is managing its procurement activities well enough to obtain value for money.She said that while the procurement process begins with identifying and prioritising purchasing needs, SERHA did not provide her with documented evidence of “a defined strategy for assessing needs within the region” to inform its funding decisions. She added that a framework for prioritising the procurement and allocation of goods and services over the medium to long term was also missing.“An efficient procurement process involves purchasing practices that seek to control costs and facilitate transparency and objectivity in the process,” the auditor general noted.According to Monroe Ellis, over the six-year period the audit covered — 2011/12 to 2016/17 — the Government provided $87.6 billion in budgetary support to SERHA, of which $25.5 billion (29 per cent) was allocated for the purchase of goods and services — the second largest cost after salaries and wages — making it a key expenditure area.“Even with additional support of $1.4 billion from the CHASE Fund and the National Health Fund, SERHA had budgetary shortfall of $31 billion,” she added.She admitted that over the six-year period SERHA had requested $120 billion for budgetary support to fund critical recurrent and capital activities, while the Government provided only $87.6 billion (73 per cent) of the amount requested. However, she said that it is important that SERHA strategically plan procurement activities to ensure the most efficient use of money“In the context of the budgetary shortfall and strained public resources, it is important that SERHA obtain value for money from the procurement of medical supplies and equipment, which is critical to delivering efficient healthcare services,” Monroe Ellis stated.— Balford Henry