The Education department on Monday defended the more than P300 million in expenses on out-of-town training sessions after the Commission on Audit flagged the amount as “extravagant.”
State auditors pointed out the P316.62 million spent on the department’s training sessions in “lavish resorts and tourist spot locations.”
But the Palace on Monday backed Education Secretary Leonor Briones, saying she would never allow irregularities in her department despite the COA report showing some anomalies in its use of funds.
“The Secretary of Education is a very competent, intelligent educator and she is someone who had never allowed any irregularity or anomaly inside her department,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
The government auditing body claims the Education department had P13.9-billion worth of undocumented expenses that ranged from P3,000 to as much as P13 billion for 2018.
Meanwhile, Senator Win Gatchalian says he will look into the unused books and other learning tools worth P3.4 million in Department of Education warehouses as revealed by the Commission on Audit in its annual audit report.
Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate basic education committee, expressed alarm and dismay over the COA report.
“One of these were the books, the learners material. I was alarmed because 3.4 million books were stocked in the warehouse, and they’re worth P113 million.
Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla says that while the amount seems “alarming,” it is less than 1 percent of the department’s P4-billion annual budget for training. The agency currently has more than 900,000 personnel.
“We cannot avoid that the minimal part of it, although the figure is in millions but considering how big our structure is, looks like a very alarming figure,” Sevilla said.
She says the training sessions conducted by the department are done “everywhere” to cater to education personnel across the country and that a daily training budget for each person should not exceed P2,000.
“We cannot give a training budget of more than P2,000 per person a day, so it’s impossible for us to pay for a hotel that costs more thanP2,000 per day,” Sevill said.
The department’s P4 billion in training budget per year covers 47,000 schools, 223 school divisions and 16 regions in the country, Sevilla says.
While the meetings of high-level officials from different regions can be reduced, the training and seminars of teachers should be continued.