MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to sanction several higher education institutions for failing to liquidate a total of P793.25 million in Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds.
Of the unliquidated amount, the University of the Philippines (UP) and Mindanao State University (MSU) have the largest balances.
UP and MSU
The UP system has yet to liquidate P462.351 million, while MSU has P236.486 million in unliquidated balances, according to data from CHEd.
According to the COA, the CHEd central office received DAP funds from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) from 2011 to 2013, which were then transferred to state universities and colleges (SUCs), to fund three specific programs.
The COA data showed that the DPWH funds were meant for infrastructure and facilities upgrade, while the PIDS funds were allocated for grants-in-aid for research and development and extension.
Poverty alleviation
The DSWD funds were for students’ grants-in-aid program for poverty alleviation.
“The CHEd central office, based on its guidelines for DAP-funded projects … is responsible [for] monitoring the implementation of the projects while the recipient SUCs shall submit regularly the status and liquidation reports required in the [memorandum of agreement,]” the COA said.
Citing the government accounting manual for national government agencies, the COA said liquidation of funds should be completed within 10 days after the end of each month or the end of the agreed period for the Project.
All of the above-mentioned projects were completed by March 2016, according to the COA. However, of the total P917.31 million in DAP funds, only P124.060 million or 13.52 percent has been settled by the recipient SUCs, resulting in an unliquidated balance of P793.25 million, as of December 2018.
In its recommendations, the audit body told the CHEd to immediately send demand letters to the defaulting SUCs, requiring them to immediately liquidate the funds, so the CHEd central office could liquidate the DAP funds.