MANILA – The Department of Education (DepEd) has posted a 97 percent utilization rate of its 2024 budget amounting to about PHP40 billion for the Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (E-GASTPE).

E-GASTPE is DepEds largest private school scholarship program, especially on the expansion of the existing Educational Service Contracting (ESC) scheme.

During an inquiry by the Senate Committee on Basic Education on Wednesday, DepEds Government Assistance and Subsidies Office Director Tara Rama said their office is waiting for other schools to submit their billing statements to fully use the budget.

"Were already at 97 percent of our utilization because some of the schools – ito na lang po yung hinihintay natin (we are just waiting for them). Billings from the regional office and then our partner in (Private Education Assistance Committee) PEAC na hinihintay pa po natin yung billings nila na ma-receive natin sa (that we are waiting to receive their billings in the) central office so that we can verify again and pay them," she told senators.

The DepEd created Ramas office last year in response to previous issues of "ghost students" and to a recommendation by the Commission on Audit to focus on administering the E-GASTPE program.

She said DepEd is implementing a more meticulous process of verification of program beneficiaries, which reportedly caused delays in payment to private schools.

"It is because we provided another layer of verification in the central office. This verification is when we receive the billings of the private schools, we actually do a run or binabangga po natin yung billing statements nila (we compare their billing statements) with our Learner Information System," Rama said, adding that the entire process takes two to three weeks.

She assured that the delay does not cause any disturbance in learners classes.

Flagged anomalies

PEAC Executive Director Doris Ferrer, who also attended the inquiry, reported that from School Year (SY) 2020-2021 to SY 2022-2023, they were able to recommend the termination of 32 voucher-participating schools due to various anomalies or non-compliance with the program.

A total of 12,675 students under the senior high school voucher program and 588 under the ESC with issues, which is equivalent to PHP300 million, have been recorded, she added.

"This year, kaya bumagal ang processing, dahil parehong naghigpit ang PEAC at DepEd (the processing is slower because both PEAC and DepEd tightened it). From our end this year, lahat nang mga eskwelahan pinag-submit namin ng documents bago namin tanggapin ang billing statements nila (we required all schools to submit documents before we accept their billing statements) just so we can be sure that the students are eligible," Ferrer said.

PEAC targets to get rid of ineligible students in the voucher program before the opening of SY 2024-2025, she said.