COA: Sara left DepEd with P12 billion disallowances, suspension, charges

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Department of Education (DepEd) over its failure to settle its huge disallowances, suspensions and charges, which stood at P12.3 billion as of the end of 2023, the last full year of Vice President Sara Duterte as the agency’s secretary.

The COA’s 2023 annual audit report on the DepEd showed that from P11.4 billion in unsettled Notices of Suspension (NSs), Notices of Disallowances (NDs) and Notices of Charge (NCs) at the beginning of the year or as of Dec. 31, 2022, the agency made little to zero progress in trimming down the amount, even incurring additional NSs and NDs, thus leaving a total unsettled balance of P12.3 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023 – an increase of P903 million year-on-year. The NSs, NDs and NCs stemmed from the DepEd’s several transactions or fund disbursements with adverse audit findings.

“Non-compliance with existing laws, rules and regulations resulted in P10,099,733,281.52 in suspension, P2,190,140,136.53 in disallowance and P7,383,880.88 in charges, for a total of P12,297,257,298.93 as of Dec. 31, 2023, which remained unsettled,” the COA’s audit report read.

Under COA Circular 2009-006, or the Rules and Regulations on Settlement of Accounts (RRSA), state auditors shall issue an NS to suspend a transaction or disbursement that they think may result in pecuniary loss to the government.

The issuance of the NS is meant to give the concerned office the opportunity to justify any questionable transaction or fund disbursement.

If the auditors are not satisfied with the justification, they shall issue a Notice of Disallowance (ND) to compel the return of the disallowed amount by the concerned officials.

Meanwhile, a Notice of Charge (NC) is issued by state auditors for erroneous computation, non-collection or under-collection as well as for non-remittance or under-remittance of collections due to the national government.

“An audit suspension or disallowance/charge shall be settled by the persons responsible or liable therefor through compliance with the requirements, or payment/restitution or by any of the modes of extinguishment of obligation provided by the law, respectively,”