COA questions DepEd's P7.6B worth of expenses lacking documentation, legal basis

The Commission on Audit (COA) has called on to the Department of Education (DepEd) for a disbursed P7.6-billion worth of expenses without adequate documentation or legal basis.

State auditors said in its 2019 report that various disbursements incurred by DepEd Central Office and its Regional Offices in the aggregate amount of P7,603,011,435.27 were paid despite inadequate supporting documents and/or without legal basis to support the claims, go against applicable laws, rules, and regulations, hence, casting doubt on the validity, propriety, and reasonableness of expenditures using government funds.

The following are DepEd's questionable expenses due to lack of adequate documentation:

• payments made for the P3.2 billion ICT packages of DepEd, the disbursement vouchers were not adequately supported by documentary requirements such as official receipts, contract agreement and other bidding documents
• payment of P194.66 million for various transactions in Capiz, Roxas City, Iloilo City, Passi City and Guimaras despite the absence of the necessary documentary requirements
• disbursement of P772 million for the salaries and wages of four offices in 2019, it was not supported by complete daily time records and other supporting documents
• disbursement vouchers for the payment of the salaries of regular teaching and nonteaching employees amounting to P372.7 in Taguig and Pateros were not supported with complete documentation
• P4.4 million disbursement for the contractor’s billing in Dinagat Islands for the electrification and modernization of electrical system due to incomplete documentation

Incomplete documentation resulted in the difficulty of evaluating whether government funds have been economically and efficiently utilized in accordance with laws and regulations, thereby casting doubts on the legality, validity and propriety of payments/disbursements made,

state auditors said.