LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—Five Benguet State University officials, including the incumbent president and four former leaders, and officials of a farmers’ organization were found liable for the illegal lease of commercial spaces that cost the university at least P258,000 in lost rental income.
In a notice of charge dated November 29, Cristina B. Emaguin, State Auditor IV and Audit Team Leader, and Queemy F. Nadunop, State Auditor IV and OIC Supervising Auditor, said current BSU president Feliciano Calora Jr. and former presidents Rogelio Colting, Ben Ladilad, Jones K. Feleciano and Nicandra J. Cuilan allowed the farmers’ group to lease a stall at the school for free, contrary to laws governing state universities and colleges.
Also charged were officers of the Timpuyug Dagiti Umanamong iti BSU Internal Guarantee System or TUBIGS, which was using the stall to sell the vegetable produce of its members but did so without a formal contract with the university, making it an unauthorized use of government property.
“We have reviewed the use of facilities of the University and noted that a private organization, specifically the TUBIGS, has been allowed free use of a stall along a commercial area of BSU and later, in a partitioned area within the BSU marketing center,” the auditors’ report said.
“The initial stall occupied by TUBIGS was across the dry goods stalls, which are being leased to various individuals for a monthly fee. The TUBIGS then transferred to a stall portioned off from the space allocated for the BSU marketing center, said center being used for the income-generating projects of the University,” the notice added.
Similar spaces in other university commercial centers are being leased out to private individuals for specific fees, the auditors noted, and BSU management was apparently “remiss in its fiscal responsibility by allowing the use of the assets without contracts of lease that resulted in the non-assessment and corresponding non-collection of rent income.”
The audit team submitted Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) No. 16-019 dated August 8, 2016 to BSU authorities. School management said its Business Affairs Office was coordinating with its accounting office for the monthly rental TUBIGS should pay the school based on an agreement “being processed.”
However, the audit team said the university has not furnished them a perfect contract, and BSU has received no payment from the TUBIGS. Benchmarking from lease agreements on similar commercial areas entered by the University, the amount due from TUBIGS was assessed at P258,520.
Feleciano said that during his term as officer-in-charge, he always reminded the BSU administrative council on the matter “but it seems that the proper authorities never gave due course to such concern, thus, the accumulated rentals incurred by the organization.”