DepEd scored for P42.9–B unused 2016 budget

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) has failed to use P42.999 billion of its allocated budget for 2016, an amount intended for its senior high school program and other basic education services, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

In an annual audit report recently published on its website, COA said DepEd received a total allotment of P412,434,829,282 last year.

Although 90 percent of that fund was used, the remaining 10 percent or P42,999,708,837 was unobligated as of the end of 2016. Of this amount, the DepEd central office had P30.153 billion while the regional offices had P12.846 billion.

At least P5.074 billion has lapsed and was automatically reverted to the National Treasury as it was a carry over from DepEd’s unobligated fund in 2015, COA said.

“The deficiency in the budget utilization is attributable to some gaps noted in carrying out the required processes/procedures in the program planning and implementation which affected the DepEd’s timely delivery of its physical targets desired for basic education services,” the report read.

The COA noted that 77 percent or P33.299 billion of the unused fund was intended for DepEd’s Major Final Outputs 1, 2 and 3 which pertain to Basic Education Policy Services, Basic Education Services and Regulatory and Development Services for Private Schools.

“DepEd’s inability to fully utilize these allotments will greatly affect the delivery of education services to the students and the public in general,” the COA said.

The purchase of textbooks and learning materials for children with special needs were among the projects affected by DepEd’s failure to use the funds, although COA noted that at least P2.435 billion of the P6.594-billion allocation was already used.

This resulted in the unavailability of more than 128 million or about 89 percent of the projected 144,739,140 books and materials that should have been used for learning during school year 2016-2017.

COA also pointed out that several tools and equipment for the technical-vocational livelihood (TVL) subjects under the senior high school (SHS) program were not procured because it was only in late 2016 that the DepEd Central Office started sub-allotting the funds to regional offices.

At least P4.917 billion was allotted for the redesigned technical-vocational high school program but by end of 2016, a total of P2.262 billion remained unobligated.

A total of P14.268 billion was also given for the procurement of computers and other ICT equipment, but only P9.296 billion was obligated.

The audit body also mentioned some lapses in the sub-allocation of funds for the Abot Alam Program, a national strategy to locate out-of-school youths who are 15 to 30 years old and have not completed basic or higher education or unemployed.

“Validation revealed that P1,073,077,970 or 97 percent of the total budget was sub-allotted during the last quarter of the year, of which P653,698,500 was only released in December,” the report read.

This delay in the release of funds to the provinces “will definitely affect the program as it is highly dependent on the availability of sub-allotment, considering that most of the funding was intended for the allowances of entitled LV/Ts (literacy volunteers and teachers) during their 10-month period of engagement,” COA pointed out. 

It also saw the late release of P1.073 billion for the maintenance and other operating expenses of secondary schools – specifically for electrification and repairs of classrooms – nationwide. Of that amount, only P710 million was released to the various DepEd division offices.

“The second tranche which was supposed to be released in August 2016 was released only in October 2016 notwithstanding the fact that the transfer for the second tranche did not correspond to the supposed allocated amount,” the COA said.

“Thus, failure to transfer the funds on time may affect the operating needs of the schools and their services to students,” it added.

COA recommended that DepEd re-assess its central office’s processes “to effect sub-allotment of funds, procurement planning, as well as the procedures for review and approval of documents to properly address the causes of the delays in the delivery or performance targets/outputs.”

Lower budget for laboratories, workshops

Meanwhile, the DepEd has clarified that the lower budget for education facilities would affect funding for the construction of laboratories and workshops and not classroom repairs as reported yesterday.

DepEd Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla said that while the total proposed budget for the basic education facilities fund (BEFF) decreased from P109.3 billion this year to P106 billion next year, the proposed allocation for construction and repair of classrooms actually increased.

Sevilla said funding for the construction and repair of classrooms increased from P64.3 billion this year to the proposed P70.5 billion next year.

She noted that the decrease of BEFF could be attributed to the lower proposed allocation for the construction of laboratories and workshops, which fell from P43.9 billion this year to a proposed P34.6 billion next year.

The BEFF is the allocation provided to DepEd for the construction and repair of classrooms and other school facilities, as well as for the procurement of school desks and other furniture.

Sevilla noted that the proposed budget for the acquisition of desks increased from P2.5 billion to P3.5 billion, while the electrification budget jumped from P300 million to P2.9 billion.

She added that they actually proposed a total budget of P136.2 billion for BEFF next year, but only P106 billion was approved by the Department of Budget and Management.

DepEd’s total proposed budget for 2018 increased to P585.2 billion from P543.19 billion this year.  – With Janvic Mateo