COA to DepEd: Return P12.3-B misused budget

Vice President Sara Duterte —Photo from the House of Representatives

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the Department of Education (DepEd) to immediately remit to the government some P12.3 billion from its 2023 budget that was suspended and disallowed due to the agency’s failure to adhere to certain bidding processes and meet its targets for various projects.

Based on its audit report on DepEd for 2023, the last full year of Vice President Sara Duterte as head of the agency, state auditors issued notices of suspension amounting to P10.1 billion; notices of disallowance totaling P2.2 billion, and notices of charges worth P7.38 million due to “noncompliance with existing laws and regulations” in the implementation of several banner projects.

Its review on the enforcement of the notices of suspensions, disallowances, and charges found that the total flagged amount, which accounted for only 1.7 percent of the P710.6-billion budget allocated to DepEd last year, “remained unsettled,” despite an acknowledgment from DepEd officials that it would turn over the funds in question.

Unliquidated advances

“We recommended, and the management agreed, to cause the immediate settlement of the suspensions, disallowances, and charges in accordance with the revised RRSA (Rules and Regulations on Settlement of Accounts),” state auditors noted in the report.

Under the COA’s RRSA, a disallowance refers to the audit of disbursements and transactions that were thumbed down “in whole or in part.”

Suspensions, on the other hand, are “temporary disallowance” of transactions presenting “doubtful legality, validity or propriety,” until the liable agencies can justify or meet the requirements in the course of auditing.

Specific agency officers, meanwhile, receive notices of charge when there is an amount assessed, billed, or collected that is “less than what is due the government.”

State auditors also found “lapses” in the handling, recording, and reporting of cash transactions in various regional offices, and the accumulation of unliquidated cash advances that were either not authorized or had no specific purpose, amounting to nearly P7 billion in violation of COA rules.

They had recommended—and management had agreed—that concerned DepEd officers halt the practice of granting additional cash advances, especially when the liquidation of past transactions is not yet completed.

The COA said the salaries of the concerned accountable officers should also be withheld, among other penalties, “until such time that they have fully liquidated or settled their [liabilities].”

Failed projects

Among the projects tagged by the COA for noncompliance were the DepEd’s computerization program, which had only a 23.3-percent budget utilization rate; the “Last Mile Schools” program, where the construction of classrooms in far-flung schools had a completion rate of only 3 percent, and the delay and inefficiencies in the implementation of the Basic Education Facilities Fund and the School-Based Feeding Program.

According to the COA report, DepEd also had a “zero-accomplishment rate” in its computerization project “due to the (central office’s) inability to complete the procurement process for 2023.”

These “deficiencies,” it added, took a hit on the DepEd’s program to enhance the Filipino students’ information and communication technology competencies.

For its Last Mile Schools program, the COA cited a status report of DepEd’s education facilities division that showed only three out of the 93 intended classrooms were completed in 2023, 69 were ongoing, and the remaining 21 were still under bidding.

Last Mile Schools are makeshift classrooms in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas that were revamped into “standard” ones to ensure quality learning for students.

From 2018 up to 2023, DepEd’s program for the repair and rehabilitation of school buildings called the Basic Education Facilities Fund, also suffered from “poor implementation, deficiencies in the electrification” of facilities, and “lapses” in the inspection, delivery, and safekeeping of procured school furniture.

For DepEd’s School-Based Feeding Program, the COA said that the agency’s “commitment to providing good nutrition to learners was not optimally achieved” because of the delays in the “regular and milk feeding components” in 21 schools division offices, failure to abide by the technical requirements of the project, and the “nonprogramming of unutilized funds.”

Finding accountability

A congressional probe into the supposed mishandling of DepEd’s budget has gained traction in the Lower House.

Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas on Tuesday backed proposals for Congress to look, for instance, into the DepEd’s bidding processes from 2022 to 2024, the duration of Duterte’s stint, for the procurement of some P9.17 billion worth of 20,000 laptop computers.

Brosas noted that Monday’s briefing for DepEd’s proposed P793.18-billion 2025 budget revealed that 12,022 laptops for teachers and 7,558 for nonteaching staff remain undelivered, “making it nearly impossible to effectively implement e-learning systems that are vital for student learning.”

For her part, Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday warned officials who used the P112 million in confidential funds of DepEd for 2023, saying they cannot escape accountability.

“Some officials of the agency cannot just wash their hands regarding the issue involving the use of confidential funds. If it was not used correctly and properly, those who participated in its use should be held accountable,” the senator said.

Her remarks were in response to the earlier statement of Education Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla during the House deliberations on the agency’s proposed budget that the department was unaware of how the confidential funds were used.

Unperturbed

While Duterte has yet to issue a response to queries from the media about the recent COA findings, she thanked her supporters on Tuesday for their willingness to pitch in for the 2025 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to fund her projects.

“I am thankful for your kindness and desire to give a donation to the Office of the Vice President as your support. Aside from this effort being heartwarming, this also shows your dedication to our aspirations [in the OVP],” Duterte said in a statement addressed to her supporters in Filipino.

Social media users supporting Duterte began posting about an effort to contribute to the OVP’s budget, with one saying that 32 million of them can donate at least P10 each, a reference to the number of votes she received in the 2022 national elections.

However, Duterte told her supporters to instead donate to people affected by Tropical Storm “Enteng,” noting that any kind of donation would be a “big help” to those in need, especially to those affected by the tropical storm “to relieve them of what they are going through and to rise again.” —with reports from Jeannette I. Andrade, Tina G. Santos and Dempsey Reyes