Irregularity found in spending of school’s money

CEBU, Philippines- The Commission on Audit has questioned the Cebu Normal University  for “lack of clear-cut” agreement when it granted seed money to its student government, which resulted to “unnecessary expenses.”

In its audit of CNU’s financial operations last year, COA said the university’s Supreme Student Government  requested P236,701.50 from the school to finance a basketball event and a culmination party.

The two activities were reportedly in line with the school’s intramurals and were organized to raise funds for the students.

However, the money the student government request was spent “not in accordance” with what it was released for and violates COA Circular No 2012-003.

The circular defines “unnecessary expenditures” as those that “could not pass the test of prudence...thereby denoting non-responsiveness to the exigencies of the service.”

The SSG officials, COA said, spent P214 on taxi fare from August 17 to September 2; P4,560 to pay for one jersey; P280 for ice cream; P205 for “water and tea,” and P4,950 for hotel bills that did “not specify the person who stayed in.”

The said student government leaders also spent P2,247 at Pancake House at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport; P9,050 worth of Jollibee meals; P6,911 for buffet meals for 12 people; P7,088 for a dinner for 13 at French Vanilla L&D at Waterfront Hotel; P1,539.64 for other “meals” at Waterfront Hotel; P1,042.53 for cakes, pie, doughnut and coffee at the same hotel; and P750 for meals for three at Zubuchon.

These expenses were made on September 4 and 5 last year, when the SSG organized the two events.

COA said the All Stars Basketball game was supposed to earn income, considering that the SSG printed 4,800 tickets for it, but “there was lack of planning” on its part.

“The group could have cancelled the event after they have felt the alleged low turnout,” COA said.

The audit team also noticed that the tickets sold were not accounted for properly and the SSG did not have a report on the sponsorship fees.

“On the face of the tickets printed, it showed there were sponsors... however, there was no report on sponsorship fees collected from Globe, Golden Prince Hotels and Suites, Virginia Foods Corp., Julie’s Bakeshop and Talk ‘N Text,” COA said.

The audit body also noted that the event could not be considered part of the university intramurals as it was not held inside the school and the participants were not from CNU.

COA said the seed money spent for the said game should be returned to the university. CNU has been directed to find out the exact amount to be returned.

COA also told the school “to investigate” those involved in handling the food and that the university president must take appropriate action on the findings.

DAP

Meanwhile, COA ordered CNU to return unused Disbursement Acceleration Program funds amounting to P541,773.52 to the national coffers.

COA said CNU received the funds from the Commission on Higher Education  in five tranches – on August 30, 2012 at P17, 625,600 for its Student Grant-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (SGP-PA); in November of the same year (P17M) for infrastructure and facilities upgrading; on August and October in 2013 for SGP-PA at P1.4M and P8.4M, respectively; and on October 8, 2013 for research at P3.9M.

COA said there was an accumulated unutilized amount of P541,773.52 from the P17M funds for infrastructure and facilities upgrading and the P3.9M funds for research.

The audit body reminded CNU of COA Circular 94-013, which mandates concerned officers to provide a report of disbursement of funds within five days after the end of each month.

The return of DAP to the national coffers is anchored on the Supreme Court decision declaring the said program unconstitutional.

On July 13 last year, COA told CNU to submit liquidation reports for the DAP funds. It repeated the order in April this year, but the university reportedly failed to do so. (FREEMAN)