MikeLigalig.com

By Johanna Camille Sisante, GMANews.TV

The Department of Education (DepEd) wasted millions of pesos from its 2007 budget, the Congressional Planning and Budget Department (CPBD) said on Wednesday.

Citing the 2007 audit report of the Commission on Audit (COA), the CPBD - in its agency budget notes for September 2008 - said millions in DepEd's budget for last year were wasted either through non-utilization, misallocation or purchase of inferior equipment.

"Information and multi-media equipment packages amounting to no less than P667.95 million were neither utilized nor maximized for classroom instructions in 13 regions because they were either defective or distributed to schools which were not strictly selected in accordance with the approved criteria, resulting in the wasteful storage or utilization of the units," the CPBD report stated.

Acute classroom shortages in 2,929 schools were also left unaddressed because school building projects worth at least P597.796 million were spent instead on 1,329 school sites that had the least need for buildings and classrooms, the report stated.

Likewise, 84,254 sets of tables and chairs and 150,748 armchairs costing P197 million were allocated to 2,777 elementary and 899 secondary schools that already had adequate seat provisions from 2004-2007 instead of giving them to 2,764 elementary and secondary schools with acute seat shortages.

The CPDB further said the COA report disclosed that while the number of undistributed textbooks decreased from 2006 to 2007, a total of 1,275,056 copies of unused textbooks or manuals costing at least P57.3 million remained stored in school stockrooms or libraries in 2007.

The COA report also showed that "unnecessary expenses and waste of time and effort by school personnel and parent-student beneficiaries" occurred due to school implementers' non-compliance with DepEd guidelines on the implementation of the Food for School program and violations of the existing rice supply contact of the National Food Authority, said the CPBD.

The CPBD likewise noted that while participation in secondary schools increased from 57 percent to 58 percent from 2001 to 2006, elementary school participation declined from 90 percent to 83 percent.

The overall achievement rate for school year 2006 to 2007 also remained low for both levels, with 60 percent for elementary and 47 percent for high school, said the CPBD.

The report said the failure to meet the 2005 Medium Term Philippine Development Program Plan (MTPDP) targets for key indicators for basic education such as participation, cohort survival, and dropout rates for both elementary and secondary levels indicate that there is low probability to meeting the 2010 MTPDP targets.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has allocated P167.94 billion for the DepEd for 2009, a 13 percent increase from 2008's P149.25 billion.

During the budget briefing last Sept. 11, DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus said the 2009 allocation is still inadequate as the increase in the DepEd should be at par with the increase in the P1.41-trillion national budget for 2009, which increased by P15.32 percent from 2008.

Under the P167.94 billion budget allotted by the Budget department, the DepEd is planning to allot P136.82 billion for personal services, a 19 percent increase from 2008's P114.77 billion.

However, the funds for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) is likely to go down by 7 percent, from 2008's P21.73 billion to the proposed P20.27 for 2009.

Only P10.85 billion will be allotted for capital outlay, which includes school building constructions, a 15 percent decrease from P12.75 billion in 2008.

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