The Commission on Audit (CoA) has flagged the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) over more than P1 billion in scholarship grants that were either unreleased, unclaimed, or belatedly given to student beneficiaries in 2023.

The audit report for the agency shows that, of the P1,036,411,617.35 allocated to CHEd for scholarship grants, the lion's share of it amounting to P468,547,650.75 has not yet been paid out or released to 430 higher education institutions and 183 scholars and beneficiaries for a period extending up to 546 days or nearly two years.

"The delays in the release of the scholarship grants deprived the scholars of their financial assistance which considerably affected the supposed support to their educational needs," the CoA said.

State auditors also found that P9.1 million in scholarship funds, which were intended for Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) for the first semester of the Academic Year 2020-2021, remained unclaimed as of the year-end of 2023.

Officials from CHEd explained to auditors that the backlog was due to some of the grantees having already graduated. Others were no longer enrolled, while a few were either transferred to other schools or had dropped out.

"This defeated the purpose of the financial assistance programs and deprived the scholars and grantees of the timely receipt of their respective scholarship benefits which considerably affected them," the CoA stated.

Audit findings further uncovered several lapses in implementing and disbursing scholarship funds, such as incurring an overpayment of P1.5 billion to student beneficiaries of the CHEd Scholarship Programs (CSP).

The audit team discovered that an overpayment of P232,500, the third largest chunk of the CSP's funds, was given to 13 students, who were also grantees of Tulong Dunong Program (TDP)-TES,

The bulk of CSP, amounting to P875,000, was also made to 16 CSP grantees who were not enrolled in priority courses, which is a requirement for qualified beneficiaries.

The CHEd was also called out for granting P7,500 to scholars whose General Weighted Average (GWA) fell below the required minimum, as well as awarding P15,00 to students whose scholarships were already terminated. 

The audit team warned that this constitutes irregular expenditure.

The CoA has subsequently ordered CHEd to refund the excess payments made to the student beneficiaries and to execute a sound internal control system in the processing of financial benefits of students to safeguard government funds against loss.

In response, CHEd informed auditors noted that there are now systems in place to mitigate or entirely eradicate the “human errors” or double payments, including the development of a separate system for the regular scholarships of CHEd MIMAROPA.

As for the double payment to student beneficiaries, the CHEd explained that one of the scholar's grades was miscalculated by the previous education supervisor, although he had already been dropped from the CSP during the second semester of Academic Year 2020-2021. 

"Then he was assisted with TDP and received an amount of P7,500. It should be noted that TDP does not have a GWA requirement," CHEd told CoA.