DBM chief dares SUCs to open financial records

Amid clamor to increase the budgets of state universities and colleges, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on Thursday urged the SUCs to divulge the details on the revenues or income they generate. At a press briefing in Malacanang, Abad said SUCs are among the agencies or entities that enjoy the privilege or prerogative of keeping the income they generate from tuition fees and other student fees instead of remitting it to the National Treasury. He said that in 2010, the SUCs had a cash balance of about P14.2 billion and additional income of P11 billion or a total of P25 billion in addition to the P26 billion provided to them in the 2012 proposed national budget. “So in actuality, the budget that they have is more than P50 billion," he said. “We will be asking the SUCs to report to the public what they have been doing with this huge amount of money that they generate by way of additional revenues. I think it is important for the public and students to know where all that is going," Abad added. He, however, admitted that not all SUCs were generating the same amount of revenues as the others. “There will be some that will generate a lot, like the University of the Philippines, and there will be some that will be generating much less, for example the SUCs from Caraga," he said. Asked if the DBM will be issuing a directive on the matter, Abad said the SUCs should report to the public without being told to do so. “That is their responsibility. If they don’t, Congress will have to, in its exercise of its oversight function, solicit that information," he said. Abad reiterated that SUCs will get 10.1 percent more under the proposed 2012 national budget with 26.1 billion allocation compared to this year’s P23.7 billion. COA audit findings For the year 2010, the Commission on Audit (COA) has audited the financial records of three SUCs based in the National Capital Region and they are the Philippine Normal University (PNU), Philippine State College of Aeronautics (PhilSCA), and Marikina Polytechnic College (MPC). Not yet posted on the COA website are the 2010 annual audit reports on the University of the Philippines (UP), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Technological University of the Philippines (TUP), Rizal Technological University (RTU), and Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST). The AARs of all the SUCs in NCR for 2003 to 2009 are posted and downloadable. Philippine Normal University According to the 2010 AARs, PNU had P920,010 invested in stock, marketable securities and other investments in 2009 and 2010. PNU’s subsidy from the 2010 national budget was P327.64 million, augmented by other income totaling P64.23 million.

The Philippine Normal University has other sources of income aside from its subsidy from the national budget. Source: COA

The COA discovered that the PNU Cafeteria had “accumulated unremitted collections amounting to P1,222,045.26" for all of 2010. The COA audit said the irregularities “indicate absence and/or weak controls over cafeteria operations…exposed government funds to loss or misuse." Auditors urged the conduct of “a thorough investigation… to determine the persons liable and demand restitution of the unremitted amount."

Here is an excerpted portion of the 2010 audit report on the Philippine Normal University. Source: COA

The COA also spotted dormant accounts receivables amounting to P5.9 million. Auditors also doubted the accuracy of a “Due from NGAs" account involving P6.7 million. Lone state-run aeronautics school The 2010 AAR on PhilSCA shows that the country’s only state-run aeronautics school spent P14 million on two aircrafts “without being able to conduct the basic and flight trainings for more than four years" at the PhilSCA Flying School. PhilSCA has two “Tampico TB 9C" trainer aircrafts: one RP 2200 model and one RP 2204 model. The COA “value for money audit" revealed that the RP 2200 “has never been used in flight trainings since 2007…while the last flight of RP 2204 was for 45 minutes on June 2, 2008." The two aircrafts have no “Certificate of Airworthiness" and the college lacks properly-rated mechanics, according to the COA. — ELR, GMA News