Senator urges probe on ‘questionable’ scholarships
Published on: Friday, August 12, 2022
By: Inquirer
A grade 3 teacher checks the performance of a government-issued laptop at Apolonio Samson Elementary School in Quezon City.
MANILA: Senator Risa Hontiveros wants to look into nearly P7 billion “questionable releases” under the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHEd) scholarship agency.The Commission on Audit (COA) flagged “questionable releases” under CHEd’s attached agency Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST).
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In filing Senate Resolution No. 128, Hontiveros said that issue may “just be the tip of the iceberg” of UniFAST’s “questionable” practices and programme implementation.
“[T]he recent COA report casts doubt as to the veracity and strength of the control mechanisms within UniFAST in implementing the Universal Access to Quality Education,” the senator stated in her resolution.
Based on COA’s report, CHEd overpaid tuition and other school fees worth almost P131 million.
CHEd also reimbursed P251 million to local universities and colleges that were being fully subsidised by their respective local government units.
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Around P3.443 billion worth of delayed and non-submission of billings and documents for UniFAST’s Free Higher Education Programme were also listed by COA.
Further, CHEd paid P824 million to state and local universities and colleges with insufficient supporting official receipts.
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Hontiveros lamented: “[T]he leakages flagged by COA amount to almost P7 billion which could have been used to build at least 7,000 classrooms or given classroom allowance to 1.4 million teachers.”
A resolution seeking to investigate the alleged overpriced and outdated laptops procured by the Department of Education (DepEd) through the Department of Budget and Management – Procurement Service (PS-DBM) has been filed at the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III lodged Senate Resolution No. 120 to look into the issue that the Commission on Audit (COA) earlier flagged.
“[W]hen the procurement process is plagued with problems such as deficiencies, irregularities, and corruption, the government loses a huge amount of money,” Pimentel stated on his bill.
“But corruption in public procurement is not just about losing money. It also reduces the quality of work or services rendered by the government to the people, in this case, our child learners,” he lamented.
Based on a COA report, the DepEd settled with the price and specification recommendations made by the PS-DBM on the laptops, which cost P58,300 each.
Before tapping the PS-DBM, the DepEd allocated its P2.4-billion budget to purchase laptops worth P35,046.50 per unit.
The COA noted that the laptops procured were overpriced with low-end processors.
“[U]nsurprisingly, the COA Report revealed feedback gathered stating that the delivered laptops are too slow because the processor is Intel Celeron, which is outdated; and that the price is too high for the technical specifications provided by the DepEd,” said Pimentel. –Inquirer
With the purchase of the more expensive laptops, the number of the intended beneficiaries dropped from 68,500 to 39,583 public school teachers, said COA.
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