Neri to probe CHED use of book fund

Secretary Romulo Neri, acting chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), said he wanted to look into the P122.5 million funds the agency used to buy “library” books for use of state universities and colleges (SUCs) last year.

Neri, director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) before being appointed to CHED, said that the huge book purchase was “worth looking into” especially with the reported irregularities in the transaction.

It was learned that an audit of the CHED operations and transactions for 2006 had raised a red flag on the book procurement when CHED bought P122.5 million books from Trinitas Publishing Inc., and designated it as exclusive printer and distributor of textbooks authored by the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) faculty teachers.

The exclusive distributorship was awarded when CHED, through a commission en banc (CEB) resolution, ordered the release of P100 million of the agency’s Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) specifically to purchase the PASUC-authored books and identified Trinitas Publishing as the exclusive publisher.