The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday vowed to get to the bottom of a series of irregularities involving a DOH official and hospital heads suspected of irregular financial dealings with medical equipment suppliers.
Answering lawmakers’ questions at the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene committee meeting yesterday, DOH Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said he felt “extreme regret” that such things had happened and vowed to make improvements.
Those involved in the conspiracy have already been punished and the entire process of procurement has been reformed to give less power to those in charge of the projects, Chiu said.
On Saturday, DOH Hospital Administration Commission chief Hwang Kung-chang (黃焜璋), Keelung Hospital superintendent Lee Yuan-fang (李源芳) and Taipei Hospital deputy superintendent Wang Chung-lang (王炯琅) and six others were charged with conspiring with medical -equipment -suppliers in several major procurement bids.
The investigators said Hwang and top officials at the three hospitals were suspected of having “abnormal” financial dealings with the three companies and of using shady methods to award supply contracts between 2009 and early this year.
They said the hospitals might have favored the three companies that won three projects under investigation — a NT$400 million (US$13.59 million) physical examination center at Taoyuan Hospital, a NT$7 million automatic biochemical examination equipment purchase by Taipei Hospital and NT$230 million in cardiovascular examination equipment purchased by Keelung Hospital.
DOH Deputy Minister Chiang Hung-che (江宏哲) said that the department plans to quickly adopt measures to include third-party supervision during the procurement process. Chiang said they would invite academics, representatives from non-profit organizations and public health experts to participate in the process to ensure that such irregular financial transactions do not happen again.
He also said that the department has formed a special task force composed of industry experts to investigate on a case-by-case basis all procurement cases since 2009, especially those that arouse suspicions because of an unusual frequency of procurement or that involved questionable dealings.
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