The Commission on Audit (COA) has found alleged anomalies in the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) student financial assistance program (StuFAP), which used to be funded by the now-discontinued Priority Development Assistance Fund and Disbursement Acceleration Program. According to a “24 Oras” report aired Monday evening, COA’s 2012 audit findings, released Friday, showed CHED gave a disproportionate amount to students under their “Study Now, Pay Later” plan, and collected only a fraction of it from students. It found that study grants were given in violation of CHED guidelines. “The selection, screening, awarding and determination of the amount of the grant to each student beneficiary,” according to the report, “were entrusted to the Office of the Legislator through a [memorandum of agreement].” Because of this, student were given financial assistance ranging from P16,000 to P110,000, exceeding the P15,000 limit per semester for CHED’s Full Merit scholars. Despite the selection, some P112,638,412 in claims listed by CHED were found to lack proper documentation such as student grades and ITR. Nine CHED regional offices reported a due amount of P138,591,978.43 from student borrowers, but only P2,469,242.65 was collected from these regions. The COa report cited a “collection efficiency ranging from 0.07 percent to 4.68 percent, due to lack of manpower, non-enforcement of the terms of the contract, inadequate monitoring system, and the absence and non-updating of [subsidiary ledgers].” Meanwhile, checks amounting to P18,840,038.60 were released by CHED’s Central, NCR, and Region IV-A offices to people other than the registered beneficiaries. The anomalies spotted Read More …
