Corrientes: Hospital Employees Receive Milk from a Maternal and Child Program
<p style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">This occurred between May and October 2008 in the town of Ituzaingó and it was detected by the provincial Court of Auditors. Deliveries were "verbally authorized by the director" of the health center. A report of the SIGEN stated that merchandise without prior medical checks was distributed, and it benefited people who were not included in the program.</span></p> <div> </div>
The Court of Accounts of Corrientes detected between May and October 2008 the employees of the Ricardo Billinghurst Hospital located in Ituzaingó distributed milk from a Maternal and Child Program with the "verbal authorization" the director of the health center.
In addition, it was discovered that some of the merchandise for the Program of Mother and Child, was given to people who were "outside the circuit laid" by "handwritten authorizations" in which alternately contained both the director of Billinghurst, as well as the accountant and the administrator.
The Court's report was part of the Federal Network Control and was monitored by the Office of the Comptroller General (SIGEN, for its acronym in Spanish). The agency explained that the main objective of the Program of Mother and Child was delivering milk and supplies in exchange for medical checkup of patients. However, "it noted the existence of distribution without having previously completed medical controls," said the receivership and pointed out that, when there were no pediatricians in the Billinghurst Hospital, there were administrative employees who concocted "parallel medical records" contained in the weight and size of the children, and in that manner granted the merchandise.
Also, because the health centers had no record of the date in which they received the products, SIGEN could not tell if there were delays in the distribution of aid among the beneficiaries of the plan. At the time of the report, approved this year, there was also a form of stock control to determine the amount of inputs and milk available. And although the Hospital storage was in "good building conditions, hygiene and ventilation were not appropriate."
Moreover, the Court of Auditors of Corrientes recommended the Maternity and Child Agency of the province to carry out "immediate control and monitoring of the monthly delivery summary sheets of medicines and supplies" issued by the hospitals, "to detect detours from the regulations and therefore, correct irregularities." Precisely, these roles allowed the discovery of the distribution of goods among the staff of Billinghurst, where in late 2008, after the work of the watchdog; there was a change of authorities.