The Bangsamoro education agency is ready to face probes by the Commission on Audit (COA), according to Education Deputy Minister Haron Meling.
“There is a masked complaint purporting that we misused the education budget by large amounts, but we are ready to face an investigation that is fair, transparent, and just,” Meling said.
The Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) “may be under fire but is ready,” he said.
A COA probe memorandum order for a special audit of MBHTE funds disbursements was forwarded to the Office of the BARMM Chief Minister, Abdulraof Macacua.
The copy-furnished cover letter of the COA memorandum has been posted by officials and netizens on social media.
The writing COA executive, whose name was blurred in the image of the letter posted, cites a need for a special audit on payments of school learning materials, and on various transactions bearing a total sum, purportedly amounting to P1 billion.
MBHTE has the largest chunk of BARMM’s annual budget, having the largest number of teaching and non-teaching employees in five provinces, despite the exit of Sulu this year.
Meling said MBHTE officials were ready to face a COA probe along fair and just due process of law, and that they would even prefer a forum under the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in the grilling of its chairman, Senator Rodante Marcoleta.
Meanwhile, MBHTE Director-General Abdula Salik Jr. said the revolutionary “Moro struggle for the right to self-determination” (RSD) is suffering “from a setback in both external and internal challenges.”
“While the constitutional mandate of COA is unassailable, it is crucial to recognize that this controversy is not occurring in a vacuum,” Salik added.
