COA recommends sanctions on SUCs with unliquidated P793M in DAP funds

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) has asked the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to impose sanctions on state universities and colleges (SUCs) with unliquidated balances from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) amounting to a total of P793.25 million.

The funds distributed to the SUCs in 2012 came from the DAP allocations of the following:

The amount involved in all 3 projects totaled P917.31 million. CHED’s central office was in charge of monitoring the implementation of the projects, while recipient higher education institutions had to submit regular status and liquidation reports.

State auditors noted that by the end of 2018, liquidations only amounted to P124.06 million.

“We recommended that the [CHED] management send demand letters to defaulting SUCs requiring them to immediately settle the transferred funds…and impose sanctions in case of non-compliance,” the COA said.

COA also asked CHED to tighten its policies on the timely liquidation, accounting, and reporting of transferred funds.

CHED said that in April it had sent demand letters to the University of the Philippines System, which has the biggest balance of P462.35 million, and the Mindanao State University, which has a balance of P236.49 million.

Meanwhile, from January to May 2019, liquidations amounting to P26.448 million and refund amounting to P4.82 million were received from the Mindoro State College of Agriculture and the University of Eastern Philippines.

“SUCs with unliquidated balances relative to the implementation of DAP will be called to a meeting for the final settlement of their long outstanding balances,” the COA said. – Rappler.com