THE Commission on Audit has required the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to go after three state-run higher education institutions (HEIs) that received overpayments totaling P548.72 million under the Free Higher Education (FHE) Program in school year 2021-2022.
In the 2023 audit of the CHED, state auditors identified the Cebu Technological University (CTU) as receiving the biggest overpayment amounting to P502.67 million.
The other state universities or colleges (SUCs) were Pangasinan State University (PSU), which is being required to pay back P42.08 million, and the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTSP) with P3.97 million in overpayments.
State auditors said the CTU received excess payment in “development fees” in the sum of P417.24 million, computer fees (P57 million), laboratory fees (P13.89 million), computer fees (P13.805 million), and handbook fees, school ID fees, and admission/entrance fees in smaller amounts.
A review of the records showed that while the CTU Board of Regents in Resolution No. 24 s. 2014 set a graduated rate of development fees dependent on the number of units the student is taking, the CHED UniFAST was charged a fixed rate of P2,750 per student regardless of academic load.
Auditors noted that under the BOR Resolution No. 24, the rate should have been P600 for students with 10 units or lower; P900 for those with 11 to 15 units; P1,150 for those enrolled in 16 to 20 units; and P1,400 for 21 units and above.
While the rules say only First Year students were supposed to be billed P250 for E-Learning fees, non-freshmen students were still billed in CTU’s Cebu City and Main campuses.
Medical fees were charged at P200 instead of P150 while dental fees were collected at P100 instead of just P50.
On the other hand, laboratory fees were discovered to have been charged to students who were not enrolled in any subject that had anything to do with laboratory use.
“Both the UniFAST and the Accounting Office of the CHED Central Office failed to capture those excessive billings because of deficient control mechanisms in place at the time,” the COA pointed out.
It noted that the hundreds of millions in overpayment bared that the CHED-CO Accounting Office failed to conduct “an independent review of the billings prior to payment because they relief on the pre-audit conducted by the UniFAST Secretariat.”
Other than collecting repayment from the SUCs, the COA likewise recommended that stronger control mechanisms are needed to be instituted at the level of the UniFAST Billing Unit and the Accounting Division of CHED to detect ineligible or excessive fees.
The CHED said it has received a notification from the CTU that conducted its own validation and has filed a request for reconsideration, seeking a reduced amount for repayment at P386.036 million or an adjustment of P116.63 million.
