T

he House of Representatives pushed the Health Ministry and the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) on Wednesday to disclose the names of health facilities allegedly administering fake vaccines to patients and to resolve the case, or they will have their budget disbursement put on hold.

A hearing between House Commission IX overseeing health and manpower, the ministry and the BPOM was supposed to discuss the 2017 budget, but lawmakers refused to do so until the case had been settled.

“The ministry and agency have given no concrete explanation to the public in regard to the case so far, so we have decided to not talk about their budget,” said commission head Dede Yusuf, a Democratic Party politician.

A joint task force consisting of the ministry, the BPOM and National Police has found that at least 37 health facilities in nine regions — Pekanbaru, Palembang, Bandar Lampung, Serang, Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Pangkal Pinang and Batam — obtained vaccines from illegal sources.

However, the task force, which has been active since mid-June, has yet to name the facilities, arguing that the case is still under investigation.

From the 37 centers, the BPOM collected 39 vaccine samples, four of which were found to be fake after laboratory tests, while the remainder are suspected to be fake as their labels did not match their contents.

“We know that the police are keeping the names confidential for the sake of the ongoing investigation, but until when? We need to restore the public’s trust in the government,” Dede said.

Commission deputy chairman Erma Lena of the United Development Party (PPP) reminded the ministry and the agency that their intransparency in handling the case would hamper the deliberation of their 2017 budget and disrupt their works in the future.

“The budget deliberation may be hampered, because when we talk about it, we talk about the monitoring mechanism as well,” Erma said.

The ministry received this year Rp 1.2 trillion (US$92 million) for vaccine procurement. Erma warned that the ministry might not receive any funds for 2017 if the deliberation deadline was missed at the House. As a consequence, it would have to resort to using the 2016 budget for next year.

“The people’s right to information is more important,” Erma said.

Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek, meanwhile, said that the names of the health facilities would likely be revealed during a hearing between the commission and the task force on Thursday.

“Since the police currently hold the names, then it should be announced by them,” Nila said.

She also promised to hand down punishments to those involved in the crime, including the revocation of accreditation or operational permits of the health facilities.

“If high officials with the facilities are involved, we will impose the maximum punishment on them,” Nila said.

The ministry has rolled out a revaccination program for children administered with the fake vaccines. The first clinic to implement the program will be a clinic owned by Manogu Elly Novita in Ciracas, East Jakarta.

The task force has identified around 48 children administered with the counterfeit vaccines from the clinic.