Sy-Alvarados clarify Bulacan State University scholarship grants

MANILA, Philippines - Bulacan Vice Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado and his wife, Rep. Marivic Sy-Alvarado, denied that the Bulacan State University (BSU) has incurred P7 million in losses due to unpaid scholarship grants.

In a statement sent to The STAR, through Rep. Alvarado’s chief of staff Sherwin Samson, the Alvarado couple said it was not them as benefactors, but the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) that pays for the tuition of their scholars.

“The standard operating procedure in scholarship grants for state colleges and universities is that the benefactors do not pay the tuition of their beneficiaries but the CHED,” Samson said.

As standard operating procedure, Samson said, “There is always a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the CHED and the sponsoring members of Congress for the former to include in its annual budget an account for the latter’s scholarship fund for inclusion in the General Appropriations Act that is mandatory (to be) deliberated upon during congressional budget hearings.”

“The money does not even pass through the hands of the Sy-Alvarados because the payment comes from the CHED and directly picked up for collection by the BSU which is the payee of the check,” Samson said.

In a four-page audit observation memorandum dated last Feb. 9, Commission on Audit (COA) supervising auditor Bernardo Garcia said the BSU, one of the province’s leading tertiary education institutions, has accumulated account receivables amounting to P7,158,809 from several scholarship benefactors.

Of the P7,158,809 unpaid scholarship grants, Garcia said P5,846,543 has been incurred from 2007 to 2009 by the scholars.

COA records showed that the Sy-Alvarados’ scholars failed to remit to the BSU the tuition and other expenses for the second semester of school year 2007-2008 and for the first and second semesters of school year 2008-2009.     

But Samson said that as early as September 2008, “the money has been lying idle in the CHED under Special Allocation Order No. SARO-BBMB-B-08-0008982, and ready for release under Order No. CHEDRO-111-2009-21 dated Oct. 29, 2008.”

“It was only on March 30, 2009 that a Landbank San Fernando, Pampanga check No. 1405248 bearing the amount of P6 million dated March 27 for a March 24 release of payment order was picked up by the BSU (or two days before The STAR story came out),” Samson said.

Samson said the audit observation memorandum is not an “official audit report” because there was no formal audit yet.

In the statement, Samson attached a copy of a BSU certification issued last March 31 by BSU cashier II/collecting officer Helen Valentin indicating that the BSU received last March 30 a Landbank check (No. 1405248) dated March 27 for P6 million drawn against the account of the CHED, Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) regional office III representing the allotment for the Sy-Alvarados’ scholars in the university.

COA earlier had warned that the BSU scholars would be trimmed down to prevent continuing financial losses by the university.

“We recommend that the accounting division closely monitor the collection of these scholarship grants to avoid an accumulation which result in bad debts. A written agreement with scholars’ benefactors must be executed to bind them with their obligation and ensure prompt payment,” the COA said.

The COA also recommended that the BSU’s accounting division prepare an accounting entry to recognize the unpaid amount of P7,158,809 “as accounts receivable and accordingly adjust the affected income account.”

“The BSU officials should adopt a concept of a legally binding contractual agreement with the university and such benefactors concerning such grants. The list of benefactors comes from private and public sectors, majority of whom are elected officials,” the COA said.

“While scholarship contracts (are) entered into between the student and the university, no agreement is signed between the benefactor and the university which could lead to possible abandonment of the benefactors’ responsibility and subsequent loss of income to the university,” the COA said.