Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that there were no irregularities or corruption at the Ministry of Social Protection, which the Inspector General’s Office found to have thousand of units of expired medications, according to a presidential press release.
After a meeting Wednesday with the Ministry of Social Protection, Santos said that “the explanations they have given me lead me to say: there is no room here for corruption. Everything was done according to protocols and standard procedures.”
The medications in question were for the treatment of malaria, leishmaniasis and the H1N1 virus.
The excess of antimalarial medication was due to a change in the treatment protocol on behalf of the World Health Organization and the only failure, according to the president, was the delay in getting rid of the drug.
The surplus of the drug to combat the skin disease leishmaniasis was due to another similar drug becoming more highly recommended.
In the case of the H1N1 medication, it had in fact not expired and will continue to be used, according to Santos.
“There has not been any regularity, there has been no act of corruption, said the head of state.