Ombudsman probes Cebu education fund ‘misuse’

CEBU – The Office of the Ombudsman has docketed for inquiry the alleged misuse of the Special Education Fund by local governments in the province.

Ombudsman director Edgardo Canton said the inquiry will consolidate an earlier investigation into the investment by the provincial school board of P42.9 million from the education fund in treasury bills and time deposits.

Canton said the panel, headed by graft investigator Sarah Jo Vergara, will also look into Commission on Audit (COA) findings that hundreds of thousands of pesos in special education funds in some towns and cities in the province were not properly spent.

The COA report said most of the local governments involved made illegal disbursements from their education funds.

Special education funds are taken from a certain percentage of a local government’s share from real estate taxes, and are meant to be used only for specific education-related expenditures.

But the COA report cited, for instance, how local officials in Naga town used the fund to pay the honoraria of a driver, three school guards and the presidents of 25 parent-teacher associations.

The COA report said local officials failed to use the funds to address school-related problems like shortages of textbooks, classrooms, facilities and equipment.

According to state auditors, most students in the province share textbooks when there are school materials worth P1.7 million which remain unused, and books bought without any request from principals in Mandaue City.

They said textbooks and manuals worth P115,000 are rotting in Lapu-Lapu City, while medical supplies costing P184,000 remain undistributed.

Canton said Gov. Pablo Garcia has been asked to explain the P42.9 million in education funds which were invested in treasury bills and time deposits. – Freeman News Service