CHED admits, apologizes for delays in release of allowances to scholars

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Wednesday said it is fast-tracking the processing of its scholarships, as it apologized for the delays in the release of allowances of the students.

"The Commission acknowledges that the delays have caused pain to our scholars, many of whom rely on the living allowances for the daily subsistence of their families," it said in a statement.

"The Commission is taking steps to fast-track the release of allowances," it added.

According to CHED, the delays were caused by several concerns, mainly on the processing of documents which were said to have accumulated a volume of 11,000 sets to date.

CHED said it also has an internal system that is "not designed to take in the large scale of scholarship administration," adding that 48 percent of the submitted documents were found to be incomplete.

To address this, CHED said it plans to hire additional manpower and introduce quality checks to ensure that discrepancies in the documents are detected early on.

It said it will also closely coordinate with Regional Offices to hasten the collection and evaluation of documentary requirements.

"The Commission recognizes that the stop-gap efforts are not enough and we apologize to the scholars for our shortcomings," it said.

"Longer-term structural reforms should be implemented to sustainably address the perennial problem of delays in releases. CHED appeals for extended patience and continued support in this once-in-a-generation effort," it added.

In the same statement, CHED said some 2,152 scholars are scheduled to receive their living allowances by December 29, 2017.

Another 1,011 scholars will receive living allowances by January 5, 2018, provided they submit their deficiencies to CHED Regional Offices. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/KBK, GMA News