Legislature to conduct formal inquiry on $22M dialysis center

Monday, June 08, 2009

AFTER DISCOVERY OF FORGED FDA CERTIFICATION
Legislature to conduct formal inquiry on $22M dialysis center

By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter

House Speaker Arnold I. Palacios (R-Saipan) yesterday said a formal legislative inquiry will be conducted on the new dialysis center which ballooned to a $22-million project from the original price of $5 million, especially in light of a recent discovery that the Food and Drug Administration certification for the new facility's reverse osmosis water system was forged.

“We want to get to the bottom of this. It's unacceptable that we spent $22 million on this project which started only as $5 million and three years after it's completed, it still can't be used for its original purpose, which is for a dialysis clinic,” Palacios told Saipan Tribune.

Since the project construction started, DPH had been asking for additional funding due to design changes, among other things.

“Now somebody dropped the bomb that the FDA certification for the water system was forged,” Palacios added.

On Friday, at a budget hearing on the Department of Public Health's proposed Fiscal Year 2010 appropriation, acting Health Secretary Pete Untalan told the House Ways and Means Committee that the FDA certification for the new facility's reverse osmosis water system was “forged” by an individual previously connected with the U.S.-based Severn Trent.

Severn Trent supplied the reverse osmosis water system unit to Saipan Ice, which was one of the subcontractors of AIC Marianas, the main contractor for the construction of the new dialysis building in Garapan.

Saipan Ice sales supervisor Lito Dizon and AIC Marianas project engineer Ding Lacap separately told Saipan Tribune earlier that they're not aware of the forgery and that nobody had told them about the issues that just came about.

Rep. Ray N. Yumul (R-Saipan) said he will ask for a formal legislative inquiry on the new dialysis center, whose long delayed opening has been reset for August 2009.

Yumul, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he will discuss today with Palacios how to best approach the issue involving the dialysis center.

“A formal inquiry is for sure,” Yumul told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

On Friday, he said “the bottom line is that taxpayers' money is involved; it needs to be accounted for.”

Rep. David Apatang, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, as well as the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee, yesterday said he leaves it up to Yumul on how to proceed with the issue at this time.

Apatang (Ind-Saipan) and Rep. Ralph DLG. Torres (R-Saipan), chair of the House HEW Committee, told Untalan and other DPH officials on Friday that they will wait for their official response on the committee's questions to a list of inquiries involving the operation and services of the department. The committee gave DPH until June 18 to respond.

Yumul said he may also ask the Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee chaired by Rep. Rosemond Santos (R-Saipan) to conduct an oversight hearing on the project.

During Friday's budget hearing, Yumul asked DPH whether it needs additional funding for the new dialysis center, at which point Untalan shared the recent discovery of the FDA certification of the center's water system.

DPH said CHC has only 14 dialysis stations for about 100 dialysis patients, while the new facility-once operational-can accommodate up to 24 stations.

“The whole idea is to move all the dialysis stations to the new building,” Untalan said.

http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=90950