COA Speaks on Suspended & Disallowed Budget of DepEd in 2023
COA – The Commission on Audit ordered the Department of Education (DepEd) to return the P12.3 billion miused budget in 2023.
Annually, the Commission on Audit checks on the spendings of the different agencies and offices of the Philippine government. It flags offices and agencies in certain cases. The Commission has previously flagged the Feeding Program of the Department of Education (DepEd) over negative reports.
Recently, COA made an order to DepEd to immediately remit to the government around P12.3 billion from its budget in 2023. Based on a report on Inquirer, the said amount was suspended and disallowed due to the department’s failure to adhere to the bidding process and meet the goals in various projects. Then, the education department was under the leadership of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Duterte has led the Department of Education (DepEd) from 2022 until recently when she resigned from the position. Senator Sonny Angara took over the leadership in the helm of the education department.
Based on the article, the state auditors wrote on the COA audit report on DepEd in 2023 notices of suspension amounting to P10.1 billion, notices of disallowance to P2.2 billion, and notices of charges worth P7.38 million becase of alleged non-compliance with the existing laws and regulations in the implementation of several banner projects of the department.
The flagged amount is only 1.7% of the Php 710.6 billion budget of the Department of Education in 2023. Based on the report, the DepEd officials previously agreed to turn over the said suspended and disallowed funds to the government but it has yet to do so.
A few months ago, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte resigned as the DepEd secretary. According to her, her decision is out of compassion for the students and the teachers. She also left her position in the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) as its vice chairperson.
Weeks after she resigned as the DepEd Secretary, Duterte said that there are both personal and work reasons in her decision to leave the Marcos cabinet. Vice Pres. Sara Duterte also spoke on her relationship with Pres. Bongbong Marcos now.