Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 12) – Senator Risa Hontiveros filed on Thursday a resolution seeking to investigate the ₱7 billion worth of “questionable” releases made by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
Hontiveros particularly underscored the “leakages” flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) on CHED’s attached agency, the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST), which implements the distribution of financial subsidy to college students.
“The recent COA report casts doubt as to the veracity and strength of the control mechanisms within UniFAST in implementing the Universal Access to Quality Education,” the senator said.
Among the CHED’s deficiencies that Hontiveros said were flagged by COA are the ₱3.443 billion worth of delayed and non-submission of the Free Higher Education billings and documents, ₱1.003 billion worth of delayed release of financial benefits, ₱1 billion unimplemented and unreverted funds for the student loan program, ₱823 million payments made to state and local universities and colleges.
“The leakages flagged by COA amount to almost ₱7 billion which could have been used to build at least 7,000 classrooms or given classroom allowance to 1.4 million teachers,” Hontiveros said.
CHED Chairman Prospero De Vera III said his office is taking “seriously” the allegations raised by Hontiveros.
De Vera maintained the “questionable” releases divulged by Hontiveros have been answered by CHED-UniFAST to COA, while the audit body’s observations requiring action have been corrected as these were stemmed from previous audit reports four years ago.
“CHED had always been fully transparent and accountable in its implementation of RA 10931 or the UAQTE (Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act),” De Vera said in a statement released on Thursday night.
“The beneficiaries of UAQTE are the beneficiaries mandated by the law,” he also said. “No UAQTE funds have been released to students who are not beneficiaries under the law.”
De Vera added that he will hold a press conference next week to explain the side of CHED and UniFAST on the issues exposed by Hontiveros.
