Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 8) — The Commission on Audit (COA) is demanding an explanation from the education officials on why learning materials worth millions remain unused.
“DepEd has an alarming number of undistributed instructional materials amounting to ₱113,708,595 that were procured as buffer stock from CYs 2014 to 2017,” state auditors said in its 2018 report on the Department of Education.
These include textbooks and teachers’ manuals.
Auditors said the DepEd has not only been buying too much, but is also failing to use these materials.
Since 2014, they said only 23 percent of the total number of materials delivered to the DepEd have been distributed.
“The audit team has given emphasis in reiterating the observations and recommendations in previous years and may consider these procured and undistributed/unutilized buffer stocks as wastage of government resources,” the COA said.
Erroneous books
State auditors also flagged the procurement of Grade 3 textbooks, which were marred with errors.
Former Education Secretary Armin Luistro approved the ₱254 million contract for the questioned materials, which were delivered between 2015 and 2016.
These include textbooks for Araling Panlipunan, Science, and English.
Auditors noted wrong use of words, grammatical and factual errors.
“The existence of error-filled learning materials is an indication that the meticulous checking/review/evaluation processes of the manuscripts were not undertaken by the concerned bureaus before its mass production,” the audit report reads.
The COA has directed education officials to improve the process of reviewing learning materials before publication and distribution.
The DepEd buffer stock, which is used to replace lost or damaged learning materials as well as to provide new students with learning materials, in the event enrollment increases or new schools are established.
