COA: P647M of CHED's scholarship grants unaccounted

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has yet to liquidate P647 million worth of its CHED Merit Scholarship Programs (CMSPs) disbursements, the agency’s 2024 annual audit report showed.

State auditors said the unliquidated P647 million was incurred by CHED Regional Office 4B (Mimaropa) and Regional Office 12 (Soccsksargen).

Region 4B covers the provinces of Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, and Romblon, while Region 12 includes Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

“Audit disclosed that funds transferred to various higher education institutions (HEIs) of CHEDROs 4B and 12, aggregating P647,407,500 under the CMSPs for 2024 and prior years, remained unliquidated as of December 31, 2024,” the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

Because the schools have not submitted reports or documents showing how they spent the scholarship money, it is difficult to tell if the funds were used properly, the COA said. This also puts the money at risk of being misused, especially when it has been left unaccounted for a long time.

The P647 million of unliquidated disbursements to private HEIs and state/local universities (SUCs/LUCs) covers Academic Years 2019–2020 up to 2023–2024.

Of this amount, P12.05 million was incurred by CHED Region 4B. Of that, P7.46 million was released to private HEIs, while P4.6 million went to SUCs/LUCs.

“Inquiry with the Accounting Unit disclosed that indeed there are funds transferred under CHED Scholarship Programs (CSPs) that were not yet liquidated as of year-end. However, the Accounting Unit asserted that they have been constantly reminding the concerned recipients of their responsibility to submit liquidation or fund utilization reports,” COA said.

“Management [of Region 4B] commented that they will send demand letters to the concerned institutions for the immediate liquidation of outstanding fund transfers. Moreover, the CHED UniFAST Regional Coordinators are also monitoring and assisting the concerned HEIs in preparing and submitting their liquidation reports,” COA added.

CHED Region 12, for its part, has yet to liquidate P635.3 million worth of CMSPs.

“The audit disclosed that as of September 30, 2024, fund transfers to HEIs for the implementation of the CMSPs, totaling P635,357,500, remained unliquidated, contrary to CMO No. 8, s. 2019,” COA said.

CMO No.8 is regarded as the “rulebook” that CHED uses to run its scholarship programs—from eligibility requirements to how schools must handle and report the scholarship funds.

“Management [of CHED Region 12] explained that due to lack of manpower and the volume of transactions, they prioritized releasing scholarship grants over monitoring liquidations, considering the urgent need of student grantees for their stipends,” COA added.

State auditors said CHED has assured them it is “making earnest efforts to engage with participating HEIs to resolve unliquidated transfers and promote compliance with liquidation requirements.”

In its report, the COA said CHED agreed to the following recommendations of state auditors:

• Issue demand letters to the concerned CMSP recipients to immediately liquidate the fund releases with supporting documents, and refund any unreleased subsidy.
• Require HEIs to immediately submit liquidation reports, along with original supporting documents, which will serve as the basis for evaluating the authenticity and propriety of the claims.
• Strengthen the monitoring mechanism by Regional Coordinators to strictly oversee the liquidation of all fund transfers to participating HEIs and ensure they are properly liquidated within the prescribed period.
• Withhold any subsequent fund releases pending submission of the required liquidation reports, as warranted.

—MCG, GMA Integrated News