COA Flags P647M Unliquidated CHED Grants, DepEd Ghost Students Cases

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has a total of P647 million worth of unliquidated disbursements under its CHED Merit Scholarship Programs (CMSPs), as disclosed in the agency’s 2024 annual audit report.

According to reports from the Commission on Audit (COA), the unliquidated P647 million was incurred by CHED Regional Office 4B (Mimaropa) and Regional Office 12 (Soccsksargen).

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

This means that the schools have not submitted reports or documents showing the trail of the scholarship funds, making it difficult to determine whether the money was used properly, COA said. It also increases the risk of misuse, as the funds have remained unaccounted for for a long period.

The P647 million in unliquidated disbursements covers academic years 2019-2020 until 2023-2024. These funds were released to private HEIs and state and local universities (SUCs/LUCs).

Of the total amount, P12.05 million was incurred by CHED Region 4B, with P7.46 million released to private HEIs and P4.6 million sent to SUCs/LUCs. Region 4B covers the provinces of Marinduque, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, and Romblon.

The COA report also outlined planned actions by concerned agencies. “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.”

Meanwhile, CHED Region 12, which covers the provinces of Cotobato, South Cotobato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat has a total of P635.3 million in unliquidated CMSPs. The management explained that “due to a 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.”

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

Aside from CHED, the Department of Education (DepEd) has also made similar headlines, after COA flagged the inclusion of “ghost students,” ineligible beneficiaries, and students from high-tuition private schools under its Senior High School Voucher Program for academic years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

COA cited cases such as Voucher Program Beneficiaries (VPBs) being absent during monitoring visits without sufficient explanation from schools; VPBs billed under a specific school or delivery mode but attended classes elsewhere; VPBs listed as enrolled but not attending any classes; and VPBs listed multiple times in the same school or across different Voucher Program-participating schools. COA also noted lapses in DepEd’s validation of program recipients and the lack of clear eligibility criteria. These weaknesses allowed 3,356 senior high school students to receive P62.9 million in vouchers for school year 2023-2024, despite attending high-tuition private schools with annual tuition fees of up to P317,000.

In response, DepED filed criminal complaints against seven private schools for allegedly having “ghost beneficiaries” in its senior high school voucher program.

“Finile na ho sa fiscal’s office yan. At may demand letters tayo dyan. May criminal cases tayo with the total amount involved of P61.9 million,” Education Secretary Sonny Angara said.

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