The Commission on Audit has flagged the Commission on Higher Education over its low utilization rate of the P7.789-billion fund for free tuition law.
In an audit report, state auditors said only P1.448 billion, or 18.11 percent of the funds was used for the first year of the implementation of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.
“According to the management, the low disbursement rate was due to the delayed/late submission by the state universities and colleges (SUCs) of the billing statements supported with the required documents enumerated in the guidelines,” the report read.
The P8-billion fund was allocated for one school calendar for two semesters.
The allocation for two semesters translated to P7.789 billion, but P210 million went to operational and administrative costs.
The per-semester allocation amounted to P3.894 billion for the 114 SUCs, which means that the P1.448-billion spending had a utilization rate of 37 percent.
CoA has cited higher utilization rates for two other major CHEd programs — the K-to-12 transition scholarship program and the five-year Philippine California Advanced Research Institute — with utilization rates of 44.55 percent and 55.64 percent, respectively.
“Management reasoned out that this was due to the delayed submission of required documents by the scholars and HEIs (higher education institutions), the inadequacy of documents and the deferment/termination of the grants for various reasons,” CoA said.
CHED, however, said the delayed submission of billing claims by the SUCs as required by CoA and the Department of Budget and Management resulted in the low utilization of free tuition funds.
It also cited the delays in the submission of scholars’ documents in the K to 12 faculty scholarship program, where only P1.515 billion of its P3.4-billion funding was used.
“Even considering the justifications by management, the low utilization rate of 55.65 percent on the average for a five-year period is very significant for the full realization of the program objectives,” CoA said.
Senator Win Gatchalian, however, vowed to fight for the budget of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and will oppose any cuts to the funding of CHED’s Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs).
“We will not allow any reduction in available scholarship funds. The reason for the Free Higher Education Law is to have an additional subsidy being given to students,” he said.
Gatchalian, one of the authors of the Free Higher Education Law (Republic Act 10931), said the budget for CHED’s StuFAPs has been cut from this year’s ₱4.7 billion to ₱1.7 billion for 2019.
The lawmaker said retaining or even increasing CHED’s 2018 budget was “actually a matter of synchronizing the fiscal year to school year,” in light of the national government’s proposal to shift to a cash-based budgeting system for 2019.
Gatchalian also slammed the significant reduction in CHED’s capital outlay for infrastructure, from ₱ 48 million in 2018 to “just a paltry” ₱ 6.9 million next year.
“These funds need to be retained because improving access to higher education is useless if the quality will suffer,” he said.
Gatchalian added that improving the infrastructure of higher education institutions is an important aspect of advancing the quality of higher education in the country.
He added that educational access and quality are two distinct indicators that must both be given ample funding in the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
CHED Officer-in-Charge Prospero De Vera III said that with the proposed cuts, students enrolled in state universities and colleges (SUCs) will still have free tuition and other school fees, but will no longer receive additional stipends due to the 64-percent budget cut.
De Vera added that 35 of the country’s state universities were not allotted infrastructure funding for the construction of new buildings and classrooms.
The budget cuts are attributed to the administration’s plans to shift from a multi-year, obligation-based budget system to a cash-based one, which will only allow funding for projects that can be initiated and completed within the calendar year.
“Our budget must be responsive to the needs of the people, especially the students and the youth. We as legislators, who hold the power of the purse, must work together to ensure that the government upholds its constitutional obligation to make education the highest budgetary priority of the State,” Gatchalian said.