Damning

If she were not the sitting Vice President and a mere appointee, Sara Duterte might have been dismissed outright on the basis of that damning report by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Sara has, of course, resigned her post as head of the Department of Education (DepEd). But that will not eradicate the COA report suspending or disallowing P12.3 billion in that agency’s expenditure for the year 2023. That is a staggering sum. It could have been used to procure a fairly large warship we might permanently station at Escoda Shoal.

The COA’s 2023 repot on the DepEd includes: a total of P10.1 billion in notices of suspension; P2.2 billion in notices of disallowances and P7.38 million in notices of charges on account of “noncompliance with existing laws and regulations” in a number of headline projects.

COA’s notices have been acknowledged by the DepEd and officials of the agency have promised to return the funds in question. State auditors reported that they have “recommended, and the management agreed, to cause the immediate settlement of the suspensions, disallowances and charges in accordance with the revised Rules and Regulations on Settlement of Accounts.”

The auditors found lapses in the handling, recording and reporting of cash transactions in various regional offices. They likewise noted the accumulation of unliquidated cash advances that were either not authorized or had no specified purpose. This amounts to about P7 billion.

The auditors recommended that concerned DepEd officials stop the practice of granting additional cash advances when the liquidation of previous transactions remain incomplete. In addition, COA recommended the salaries of concerned DepEd officers be withheld until they have settled their liabilities. This is a prudent measure to reduce the possibility of future loss of public funds.

The audit report does not paint a flattering picture of how the DepEd was run under Sara Duterte’s leadership. The agency seriously underspent for its mainline projects even as it has very efficiently consumed its confidential funds.

On its vital computerization program, most notably, auditors found that DepEd had a “zero-accomplishment rate.” This is due to the failure of the DepEd central office to complete the 2023 procurement process.

The department’s computerization program had a measly 23.3 percent budget utilization rate. The “Last Mile Schools” program was even worse. It had a completion rate of only 3 percent. There were countless delays in inefficiencies in the implementation of the Basic Educational Facilities Fund and the School-Based Feeding Program.

The “Last Mile Schools” program is particularly sensitive. The schools identified for this program are in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. The program intends to bring them up the par.

It might be possible that the damning COA report may be due to the incompetence of Sara Duterte’s subordinates. But these are career people and no one recalls a COA report on the DepEd as damning as this one. It ultimately reflects on the quality of leadership at the top of the agency.

When Sara appeared before the Senate to defend her agency’s budget, she got into a spat with some of the senators. The DepEd was asked to purchase thousands of copies of a children’s book ostensibly written by Sara. The book was riddled with errors and, on the last page, a picture of the Vice President appears. This was clearly politicking using scarce textbook funds.

There were other questions regarding the artists who served as illustrators for this book. It appears they were employed by the DepEd and received no additional compensation for doing work on the book. This could be a case of exploitation of employees.

Sara declared the questions raised regarding the questionable book were politically inspired. Maybe they were. But that does not invalidate the questions raised.

These questions deserved satisfying answers. Sara would not give them.

At the House hearing, Sara raised the same specter of political persecution as she refused to answer what were valid questions about how the DepEd has been governed in the two years Sara headed it. Again, Sara refused to fully respond to the queries, citing the questions to be politically motivated.

To be sure, there have been times when the House behaved like a herd. But even when they do, the representatives manage to sometimes ask relevant questions of the resource persons attending its hearings. None of the questions, including those that might imply a personal history of imprudence in the use public funds, were irrelevant to the matter at hand. These questions are relevant especially since the Office of the Vice President is requesting a rather large outlay – a lot of which are for patronage programs.

Last year, Sara invited controversy when she requested a rather large amount of confidential funds. As a result, the allotment of confidential funds across all agencies came under close scrutiny. The DepEd, in particular, is an educational bureaucracy and not a spy agency.

The Vice President has surely been put under closer scrutiny since she resigned her Cabinet post and openly broke with the ruling majority. But there is nothing inherently wrong in looking into how public monies have been spent by regular government agencies.

Sara probably took the wrong tack when she approached the budget hearings as an exercise in adversarial politics. As a public servant, she needs to respect Congress’ power over the purse and its independence as an institution.

She needs to understand, too, that the COA is a constitutional body with an apolitical history.