COA flags DepEd over P1.9-B unliquidated cash advance

The Department of Education has accumulated P1.9 billion worth of unliquidated cash advance as of December 31, 2019, the Commission on Audit said.

In its annual audit report on DepEd, COA said that the P1.9 billion worth of unliquidated cash advance was incurred by DepEd central office and 11 DepEd Regional Offices.

Region 5 had the highest amount of unliquidated cash advance at P445.5 million, followed by Region 6 with P411 million.

The rest of the DepEd offices accumulated the following amounts of unliquidated cash advance:

• Region 12 with P290.3 million
• National Capital Region with P158.9 million
• Region 13 with P125.6 million
• DepEd Central Office with P101.8 million
• Region 4B with P93.9 million
• Region 9 with P79.5 million
• Region 1 with P70 million
• Region 10 with 59.8 million
• Region 3 with 34.7 million
• Region 8 with P15.7 million
• Region 2 with P15.3 million
• Region 11 with P14.8 million and
• Region 7 with P4.7 million

“The unliquidated cash advances included unsettled accountabilities due from retired/resigned/transferred/deceased former personnel of Regional Offices 2, 5 and 8 in their respective amounts of P1,378,160.91, P1,389,821.48 and P244,269.20. The same observation was noted in Regional Offices 7 (SDO Cadiz City) and 3 (SDO Nueva Ecija), however, the amount pertaining to the deficiency was not mentioned. The liquidation settlement of the said accounts is doubtful,” COA said.

“Aging of unliquidated advances in the total amount of P1,158,332,034.73 in DepEd Central Office and in nine Regional Offices revealed that P907,857,319.39 were granted during the year while the amount of P250,474,715.34 pertained to cash advances granted in previous years which have been due for over one year to more than ten years,” COA added.

The significant amount of unliquidated cash advances, COA noted, is a result of deficiencies on the granting, liquidation and monitoring of cash advances contrary to existing COA rules and regulations and DepEd guidelines relative thereto.

COA has recommended that the DepEd strictly comply with the existing COA rules and regulations and DepEd guidelines on the granting, liquidation and monitoring of cash advances as well as issue demand letters to Accountable Officers to settle their cash advances.

“In case of failure to comply, DepEd should implement the withholding of salaries or any money due to them, including appropriate legal sanctions pursuant to Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code for failure to render accounts,” COA said.

“After all the possible measures were undertaken to ascertain the details of the account and proven futile, [DepEd should] request authority to write off said accounts from the Commission on Audit, in accordance with COA Circular No. 97-001 dated February 5, 1997 and COA Circular No. 2016-005 dated December 19, 2016,” COA added.

In response, all the DepEd offices agreed with state auditors' recommendations.

DepEd Central Office said that its unliquidated cash advance has been reduced to P45.3 million as of March 31 this year.

DepEd NCR, for its part, has adopted the policies of liquidating funds on a monthly basis and “No Liquidation, No Cash Advance.”

Region 2 also instructed the Finance Division to issue demand letters to all employees and officials with outstanding cash advances while a memorandum will also be issued to inform all concerned that failure to liquidate their outstanding cash advances within a specific period will prompt DepEd to deduct the amounts from their salaries and other benefits due them.

Unliquidated cash advances in DepEd Pampanga and Quezon province have also been reduced to P531,021 and P173,000 as of January and February this year, respectively.

DepEd Masbate, however, contested that the Records of the Accountant revealed that its cash advances amounting to P98,602,633.39 as of December 31, 2019 is not a fair and realistic figure since many accountable officers, Schools Heads—in reality and in fact—have already liquidated their cash advances as of December 31, 2019 but were not entered in the books of accounts due to the failure of the accounting section to prepare Journal Entry Voucher in a timely manner. —LBG, GMA News