(GMA News) The Office of Ombudsman has been investigating the procurement of COVID-19 equipment and the non-payment of benefits due “fallen health workers” since the middle of 2020, Ombudsman Samuel Martires said on Friday.

Martires added that five officials of the Department of Health have been placed on preventive suspension in October 2020 because of the probe.

The motu propio investigation, the Ombudsman said, was “relative to the procurement of test kits, PPE’s and other emergency purchases; including the non-payment to ‘fallen health workers’ and those infected by the virus; as well as the lapses and inefficiencies that led to the rising number of deaths and infected medical frontliners.”

“Our next step now is to review the COA Report and compare the same with our findings to determine the existence of any administrative or criminal liability in relation to the financial transactions of the DOH,” Martires said.

He said the investigation focused on determining the causes of inefficiency or mismanagement and identifying areas prone to corruption, the results of which will be communicated to the agency concerned and to Congress for appropriate legislation, if necessary.

Martires said the Commission on Audit’s annual audit report would “greatly help in their investigation.”

The Ombudsman also addressed the 2017 COA-Ombudsman memorandum agreement which created a task force composed of COA auditors and Ombudsman investigators to automatically investigate audit observations tagged by the COA.

“I would like to apologize to former Ombudsman, Justice Conchita Carpio Morales for not informing her that I deactivated the task force because I noted some legal infirmities in the MOA like usurpation of authority,” Martires said.