Tesda: DAP did not go to ‘ghost’ scholars

Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva. Photo from tesda.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines–The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) does not have “ghost scholars” that were supported with the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds released to the agency in 2011, according to Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva.

In a statement Thursday, Villanueva said that 61 Tesda beneficiaries who were described as “ghost scholars” were currently employed overseas while others could not be traced after “they changed contact numbers.”

The Commission on Audit, he said, had accepted the explanation and “did not issue any notice of disallowance or notice of suspension” for the P1.1-billion in DAP funds released to Tesda in October 2011.

Villanueva said the money was used to augment his agency’s training for work program which has provided free vocational education and training to nearly 140,000 scholars.

Of the P1.1 billion, P500 million was allocated to the business process outsourcing-information technology (BPO-IT) sector and P600 million for skills training in the priority sectors of agriculture or agribusiness; tourism, retirement, health and wellness; general infrastructure; and electronics or semiconductors.

He said scholarship programs in the BPO-IT sector yielded over 65,000 graduates, of whom 45,961 were now employed. Programs in the priority sectors produced 73,632 graduates, of whom 44,179 found jobs.

Villanueva said around P38 million of the DAP funds that was unutilized went to the National Treasury.

“Among the reasons for the failure to use the funds was the delay in the processes of some private sector partners, the dropout rate and the inability to fully implement scholarship programs in some areas because of calamities,” he said.

Abiding by the COA recommendation, Tesda has ordered several schools that did not implement the scholarship programs to return the money allotted to them.

The agency likewise closed some schools found to have irregularities in their technical-vocational programs.

“We are prepared to present documents to show the (DAP) fund has reaped gains for the beneficiaries,” Villanueva said.

In the COA report, the agency noted that 61 scholars “attended multiple training courses which were held simultaneously.” It also noted that 218 scholars could not be reached through their contact numbers, while 46 claimed they had never attended a Tesda training course and one could not remember the training program.

The COA also found that a little over P109 million of the DAP funds was not utilized by Tesda for the whole of 2011.