CHEd suggests directly giving Smart Campus Dev’t Program fund to SUCs

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) suggested on Wednesday giving the Smart Campus Development Plan fund directly to state universities and colleges (SUCs) to avoid delay in its implementation.

The Commission on Audit has flagged CHEd for its failed information technology plan for SUCs as the latter spent six months vetting and approving proposals.

READ: CHEd flagged for failed IT development plan for SUCs

“I told Congress that the next round, they should not let the money pass through CHEd anymore. They should give it directly to the SUCs. So that the SUCs can implement it faster,” CHEd chairperson Prospero de Vera III said on ANC’s Headstart.

“I would have wished that they give it directly to the SUCs immediately. So that it doesn’t have to go through a vetting process,” he added.

The P2-billion allocation for financial aid in purchasing information and communication technology infrastructure and learning management systems was not automatically distributed to SUCs.

The SUCs must submit project proposals and supporting documents to be among the grant beneficiaries amounting to up to P25 million.

For De Vera, the P25-million grant per SUC is a meager budget to establish a smart campus.

“Kulang ‘yung pera (The money is insufficient). We have 112 state universities and colleges and the money is small. In the grants that the SUC got was only about P25 million per SUC,” the chair noted.

“That is not enough to create a smart campus. So we have to make sure that the money is given to those that are ready to implement it,” he lamented.

If Congress prefers to have the funding pass through CHEd, De Vera hopes that the amount would be higher so they can provide grants to all SUCs.

“Otherwise, okay lang ibigay sa amin, dagdagan sana ‘yung amount. Kasi kung malaki talaga ‘yung amount, we can divide it equally across the SUCs already if the amount is sufficient. But P2 billion is a very small amount for smart campuses,” he said.

(Otherwise, the amount can be given to us, but I hope they increase it. Because if the money is huge, we can divide it equally across the SUCs already if the amount is sufficient.)

To date, 102 SUCs are interconnected or are under the Smart Campus project, De Vera said.

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