A test for TESDA

With reports — left and right — of corruption and the inefficiency plaguing government, many of our people seemed to have become inured and desensitized to such irregularities.

But there is something that rankles our sensibilities when anomalies involve the education of our youth. Maybe that’s because of the shared belief that education is a ticket out of poverty, a door to a better future.

It is disturbing to learn of the Commission on Audit’s (CoA) 2017 report which exposed hundreds of “ghost scholars” of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

The irregularities involved the AMA Computer College (AMACC) Manila Campus with 310 beneficiaries and Technivoc Institute Corp. (TIC) with 270.

However, CoA found out that the supposed beneficiaries were either totally non-existent or were enrolled in other schools.

The anomalies were connected to TESDA’s Training for Work Scholarship Program with a budget of P2.415 billion.

CoA’s discovery of “ghost scholars” puts the spotlight on TESDA and raises doubts as to the capability of the agency to prevent leakage of precious government funds.

The issue gains more significance by the fact that the Free College Education Act also includes free tuition for students enrolled in state-run technical-vocational institutions, including TESDA.

Under the P3.757 trillion proposed 2019 budget, the education sector receives the lion’s share amounting to P659.3 billion or P72.2 billion higher than its cash-based equivalent in the 2018 budget.

The allocation is distributed among the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), state universities and colleges and TESDA.

According to CHEd officer-in-charge Prospero de Vera III, TESDA will directly receive P7 billion allocated under the 2019 budget for free Technical-Vocational Education and Training.

Incumbent TESDA director general Secretary Guiling Mamondiong admitted with increased funding for the agency, they expect not only a rush in additional trainees and scholars from the current number of over 200,000 all over the country.

To be fair, the discovered ghost scholars were for the 2015-2016 period which dates back to the stint as TESDA head of incumbent Sen. Joel Villanueva.

Incidentally, CoA also flagged TESDA during Villanueva’s time for ghost scholars. In 2014 the CoA found irregularities in its use of funds sourced from the Aquino administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) which was partly declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The auditing agency said TESDA may have used some of the P1.1 billion DAP funds it received in 2011 to finance ghost scholars. CoA found that 61 of the supposed scholars attended multiple training courses simultaneously, 46 never attended any training course, while 218 could not be verified as they could not be reached through the stated contact numbers.

Villanueva passed the blame on TESDA-accredited schools, saying he ordered the shutdown of these institutions. He stepped down from his post in October 2015 to prepare for his Senate bid.

He did win as senator but controversy hounded him. In 2016 the Office of the Ombudsman ordered him dismissed from government service over irregularities in the use of Priority Development Assistance Fund during his stint as party-list representative.

In connection with the 2017 CoA report Mamondiong said AMACC admitted an irregularity occurred and refunded the disallowed amount totaling P9.3 million. In contrast, TIC contested the adverse CoA report.

As a backdrop, AMA’s founder, Amable Aguiluz V, is no stranger to controversy too. He supported Joseph Estrada in the 1998 presidential elections and that bagged for him an appointment in 1998 as presidential adviser on Information and Communication Technology and in 1999 as chairman of the Presidential Commission on Year 2000 Compliance.

Aguiluz resigned from the commission in November 1999 over a controversial equipment purchase from a firm linked to AMA Group of Companies. In 2001, he dumped Estrada and supported President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), now the incumbent House Speaker.

Mamondiong also served under GMA as undersecretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication. He was assigned to oversee rail programs which included the controversial $503-million NorthRail shelved in 2012 that Sen. Franklin Drilon described as “the greatest train robbery in history.”

Against this background, the onus now rests on the shoulders of Mamondiong to prove that he can rid TESDA of corruption and discipline allied educational training institutions to ensure funds for technical education of the youth are spent properly.

He claimed to have tapped a private organization to audit the performance of technical training institutions nationwide and vowed to file appropriate charges to those found involved in anomalies.

But talk is cheap. Mamondiong must walk his talk as every ghost scholar found or the improper expenditure of TESDA funds meant one youth robbed of the opportunity for a better future. That might be considered worse than a death penalty as it could imprison one to an entire life of poverty and misery.

Clean TESDA of corruption. That is the mission that Mamondiong must accomplish. That is the test that TESDA must pass.