COA flags ‘unverified’ beneficiaries under DepEd voucher program

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) found several “unverifiable” beneficiaries in the Department of Education (DepEd) voucher program for school year 2025-26, resulting in an “overpayment” of P938,000 in government assistance.

COA said it could not verify the existence of these beneficiaries because they had either dropped out, transferred schools, did not enroll in the second semester, were reportedly deceased or had no school records available.

These findings were based on a compliance audit of the voucher program beneficiaries (VPBs) under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) program for senior high school students.

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The audit report was released on Sept. 23.

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Under GASTPE, students enrolled in private high schools may receive assistance through the Private Education Student Financial Assistance Program voucher system.

Other forms of assistance include tuition fee supplements, a high school textbook fund, scholarship grants and an education loan fund.

This assistance is provided based on the amount of tuition fees, financial needs and overall performance of the school, geographic spread and size of the student population, academic qualifications and financial needs of the learners, and socioeconomic needs of each region.

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According to COA, there were a total of 172,909 beneficiaries nationwide under the GASTPE voucher program for school year 2025-26, excluding those from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Negros Island Region.

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During its validation, COA said it sampled 5,507 beneficiaries from 571 senior high schools. It noted that 995 beneficiaries were from the National Capital Region, while 4,512 came from other regions.

Of the 5,507, COA said it was able to validate the existence of 5,383 beneficiaries, while 58 could not be verified.

Of the 58 unverified beneficiaries, COA said, “32 had officially or unofficially dropped out, 12 transferred to other schools, 11 were not enrolled in the second semester, two were reported deceased and one was absent during school validation with no records available.”

It noted that payments had already been released to the schools of 53 unverified beneficiaries, resulting in an overpayment of P938,000.

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COA pointed out that under Department Order No. 20, series of 2023, students lose entitlement to their subsidy if they drop out during the school year.

The same order also requires participating schools to refund DepEd whenever payments exceed the correct amount. This applies when there are inadvertent errors or when a student drops out or transfers schools before the end of the first semester.

COA noted that participating schools are responsible for updating the status of their students, with DepEd conducting further verification to prevent potential overpayments.

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As part of its recommendations, COA called on DepEd to validate the enrollment status and existence of the unverified beneficiaries and require all senior high schools participating in the program to ensure the accuracy of the necessary documents. /das