MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has prompted the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) to explain the transfer of P160 million to its regional offices for the implementation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) projects.
Based on COA’s report on Tesda’s 2020 expenditures, Tesda’s Central Office released P147.3 million for the implementation of Executive Order No. 70, which created the NTF-Elcac. It also noted fund augmentations to several of its regional offices, which totaled P12.70 million.
According to COA, such fund transfers of Tesda are “highly questionable” due to lack of authority as Section 4 of Presidential Decree No. 1445 states that “no money shall be paid out of any public treasury or depository except in pursuance of an appropriation law or other specific statutory authority.”
If legal authority is not provided, COA added that this may be a “ground for technical malversation of public funds.”
“Fund transfers through Notice of Transfer Allocation (NTA) from TESDA CO to TESDA ROs for the implementation of EO No. 70, creating the [NTF-ELCAC], amounting to P160,083,401.61 are highly questionable for lack of proper authority/legal basis and the absence of appropriate guidelines as to how this fund shall be utilized, likewise exposing these funds to possible misuse or misappropriation,” the Commission pointed out.
COA explained that even if EO No. 70, particularly Section 9, provides that initial funding requirement for NTF-Elcac should be charged against existing appropriations of member agencies, this provision is not clear on how the fund would be extracted from member agencies. Tesda is a member of the government’s anti-insurgency task force.
“However, the above provision is not clear as to how the charges to the appropriation of the member-agencies shall be made and what are the requirements as basis or authority for the charging,” it stressed in its audit report.
“Considering that the CY 2020 TESDA appropriation was intended for the implementation of the Agency’s programs/projects pursuant to its mandate, the funds should have been utilized in accordance with the purpose (Sec. 17 FY 2020 GAA),” it added.
As such, COA noted that activities under EO No. 70 were not among the “identified funded programs/projects in the current year’s appropriation of Tesda” and that no Special Allotment Release Order from the Department of Budget and Management was made to authorize the fund transfers.
Regulations regarding fund augmentations, similarly, have not been created, COA added.
COA’s report showed that Tesda’s Davao Region office got the highest allocation for NTF-ELCAC purposes, in terms of combined initial release and fund augmentation, at P41.95 million. It was followed by Soccsksargen’s P23.72 million, Caraga’s P13.84 million, Bicol Region’s P12.79 million, and Zamboanga Peninsula’s P12.33 million.
In response, Tesda said that the initial releases were from the TESDA Scholarship Funds which was supported under the 2022 General Appropriations Act. They then used the assailed Section 9 as a basis to assert the legality of the fund transfers.
COA maintained that Section 9 of EO No. 70 cannot be used as a basis because an executive order alone cannot give agencies the power to use the Congress-approved budget for the NTF-ELCAC projects, “especially if there is no well-defined approved program of activities and no guidelines were specifically formulated for its utilization”.