CHEd questioned over P8 billion in unutilized funds from 2019-2022

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker questioned the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) on Thursday about its P8 billion unutilized funds from 2019 to 2022, saying that the amount could have been used to address the high attrition rate in schools nationwide.

CHEd Executive Director Cinderella Benitez-Jaro revealed this during the House committee on appropriations deliberations on the commission’s proposed budget after Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza asked her about unused appropriations from 2019 to 2022.

READ: CHEd launches review of SUC policies on student admission, retention

“From 2019-2022, we have P8 billion [funds] unused by the Commission on Higher Education. If you have better utilization, you could’ve used that to help institutions. You could’ve helped students graduate because our attrition rate is 30 to 40 percent,” the lawmaker said.

Before this, Jaro disclosed the breakdown of this amount, saying that P4.1 billion from its total budget was unutilized in 2019, P2.2 billion in 2020, over P970 million in 2021, and over P820 million in 2022.

Although the funds had already reverted to the national treasury, Daza asked what happened to them and why they were not used.

For instance, CHEd Chair Prospero de Vera III explained that in 2019, they allocated P6 billion of funding to the Philippine California Advanced Research Institutes (PCARI) project launched in 2015.

“The 2019 significant reversion was caused by the fact that our PCARI project was winding down, and the money could not be used for other purposes anymore because PCARI is a long-term project involving high-level research of universities, and we had problems. The project started before my time, and we ended it in 2020 or 2021,” De Vera said.

“That is the reason when the PCARI program ended; we did not continue with it anymore because we saw how difficult it was to implement it. These are projects by the University of the Philippines, Ateneo, and others. We had a P6 billion funding for PCARI authorized by Congress, and I must admit we had challenges using that money. So most of the money is significant that was not used was PCARI-related, Madam Chair,” he added.

But Daza called De Vera’s explanation “mitigating factors” and not “an excuse,” pointing out that CHEd could have realigned these funds to its other programs and activities.

“I’m just trying to highlight to the commission that because there are so many needy students, you should have a plan. If there are any excess funds, place them in the tertiary educational subsidy living allowance. Give it to the SUCs (state universities and colleges) for their priority programs. Use all the funds,” the lawmaker said.

Previous data from CHEd last February showed that the attrition rate has jumped to its highest level – 40.98 percent – in the School Year 2022-2023. This is the highest since 2019.

In line with this, the commission launched a review of policies on the admission and retention of students in SUCs. With reports from Arianne Denisse Cagsawa, INQUIRER.net intern