Section 31June 6, 2008, Sec./Art. 31

Strengthening of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD). - (a) For a more effective and expeditious implementation of this Act, the Director or head of the Bureau of Food and Drugs shall be authorized to retain, without need of a separate approval from any government agency, and subject only to existing accounting and auditing rules and regulations, all the fees, fines, royalties and other charges, collected by the Bureau of Food and Drugs under this Act and other laws that it is mandated to administer based on the immediately prior year of operations, for use in its operations, like upgrading of its facilities, equipment outlay, human resource development and expansion, and the acquisition of the appropriate office space, among others, to improve the delivery of its services to the public.

This amount, which shall be in addition to the annual budget of the Bureau of Food and Drugs, shall be deposited and maintained in a separate account or fund, which may be used or disbursed directly by the Director or head.

(b) After five (5) years from the coming into force of this Act, the Director or head of the Bureau of Food and Drugs shall, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Department of Health, determine if the fees and charges, mentioned in Subsection (a) hereof, are sufficient to meet its budgetary requirements.

If so, it shall retain all the fees and charges it shall collect under the same conditions indicated in said Subsection (a) but shall forthwith, cease to receive any funds from the annual budget of the National Government; if not, the provisions of Subsection (a) shall continue to apply until such time when the Director or head of the Bureau of Food and Drugs, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Department of Health, certifies that the abovestated fees and charges the Bureau of Food and Drugs shall collect are enough to fund its operations.

(c) The Bureau of Food and Drugs shall submit a yearly performance report to the Quality Affordable Medicines Oversight Committee, as provided in Section 45 of this Act. The report shall itemize the use of such retained funds in the past year up to the present and the budgeted use of the same in the succeeding periods.