The Department of Education (DepEd) either failed to deliver or poorly delivered on already-funded projects in 2023, the Commission on Audit (COA) revealed in its latest report.
State auditors reported that the agency only managed to build 192 classrooms out of its goal of 6,379 classrooms last year, when Vice President Sara Duterte was still at its helm.
“Only 192 (3.01 percent) out of 6,379 classrooms were completed/constructed in 2023 due to realignments because of modifications in the projects’ design,” the COA disclosed in its 2023 annual report.
These figures put the DepEd’s classroom-building accomplishment rate in 2023 at only three percent.
“A total of 4,391 classrooms are still under construction, and 550 are yet to undergo various stages of procurement,” the COA further revealed.
It was also revealed that while the DepEd’s Annual Procurement Plan (APP) stated that 580,394 school desks should have been delivered from May to June 2023, the contracts for these furniture items were only completed in December 2023.
“Thus, the target of 580,394 school seats to be delivered in 2023 was not accomplished,” the COA summed up.
Also, only three Last Mile SchSchool-Basedools (LMS) were completed out of 88 the agency targeted to build in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas last year.
Furthermore, it was reported that the DepEd only managed to complete repairs and rehabilitation on 208 classrooms out of the 7,550 classrooms it intended to refurbish in 2023.
The COA placed the total cost of building or remodeling classrooms and purchasing related furniture under the Basic Education Facilities program at some P816 million in 2023.
“The high rate on obligations does not fully indicate effectiveness and efficiency since these obligations are only valid commitments based on the awarded contracts/purchase orders where goods are not yet delivered and projects are not yet started,” state auditors pointed out.
Meanwhile, the COA also exposed delays in the delivery, and the occasional non-delivery, of vitamin-fortified bread (E-Nutribun) and milk intended to feed learners in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Northern Mindanao under the DepEd’s School-Based Feeding Program (SBFP).
It was also reported that even when these products reached their intended consumers, it turned out that some of them were no longer edible due to contaminants or because they were way past their expiration dates.
The state auditor also noted that food being fed to students in certain schools in Quezon City was not sanitarily packed or was below their prescribed serving weight.
According to the COA, the SBFP had a funding of P5.69 billion in 2023.
