COA: DepEd overpaid P938,000 in aid

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has found several “unverifiable” beneficiaries in the senior high school voucher program of the Department of Education (DepEd), which resulted in an “overpayment” of P938,000 worth of government assistance.

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

These were the findings of a compliance audit released on Sept. 23 on the existence and eligibility of voucher program beneficiaries under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (Gastpe) program of DepEd for the school year 2025 to 2026. Under Gastpe, students enrolled in private high schools may receive assistance through the voucher system of the Private Education Student Financial Assistance program.

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Assistance is provided based on the tuition charged by the school, the geographic spread and size of the student population, their academic qualifications and financial needs, and the socioeconomic needs of each region, among others.

According to the COA, there were a total of 172,909 beneficiaries nationwide under the voucher program of Gastpe for school year 2025 to 2026, excluding those from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Negros Island Region.

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

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

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It added that among the unverified beneficiaries, “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.”

Violations

But for 53 of the unverified beneficiaries, payments had already been released to their respective schools, resulting in an overpayment of P938,000.

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The COA pointed out that under DepEd Department Order No. 20, Series of 2023, students lose entitlement to their subsidy if they drop out in the middle of the school year. The same order also calls for a refund to DepEd whenever payments to a participating school exceed the correct amount. The COA said this applies when there are inadvertent errors, or when a student drops out or transfers schools before the end of the first semester.

Schools participating in the program are responsible for updating the status of their students, the COA noted, with DepEd conducting further verification in order to prevent potential overpayments.

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

In a statement on Tuesday, DepEd said it has already acted on the COA’s findings regarding the unverified beneficiaries.

It reported that the Private Education Assistance Committee, its comanager of the voucher program, has already completed its validation of school year 2025 to 2026.

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“Through this year-end validation, flagged cases are being reviewed and confirmed overpayments will be recovered,” DepEd said. /cb