Tesda head on ghost scholars: ‘Not during our time’

“Not during our time.”

Secretary Guiling Mamondiong, Director General of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) has denied that the alleged corruption case that involved millions of pesos spent on ghost schools and scholars happened under his watch.

Mamondiong in a press briefing on Thursday said the recent report of the Commission on Audit (COA) tagging Tesda referred to incidents that happened in 2015, when he was not yet the head of the agency.

“I would like to repeat that it happened in 2015. I assumed office in July 2016,” he said.

Mamondiong however declined to identify who may have been involved in the scandal. A statement from Tesda said the alleged corruption case is only “coincidental” and was not rampant in the agency during the previous administration.

In its 2017 report, COA said Tesda spent P9.3 million for software training of some 310 scholars with the AMA Computer College (AMACC) Manila Campus.

It also reported that P1.47 million was also released by Tesda as payment for the training of  270 scholars for barista and bartending courses with the Technivoc Institute Corporation (TIC).

AMACC in a statement said it has already returned the amount to TESDA and have removed from his post the school official involved in the issue in 2017.

READ: Fictitious trainees at Tesda bared

According to COA, the funds, including those alloted to the AMACC and TIC, were given to “doubtful” and “fictitious” schools and scholars.

Mamondiong said he has heard of the supposed ghost scholars when he took over as head of Tesda.

He said that when he became head of Tesda, he immediately formed an audit team to visit over 4,000 schools nationwide. According to Mamondiong, 175 training centers and over 6,000 programs have been found engaged in irregularities and have been closed.

“We are not wasting the money of the government… We are not involved in any anomalous [action], he said, while citing that existing corruption within the agency has been limited to only around five percent.

He also warned officials who will be found to be involved in the issue, as he said they are launching an investigation into the case.

“This is a warning… They can be put to jail if they commit corruption,” Mamondiong said.  /muf