A report revealed irregularities in the The Department of Education’s (DepEd) financial records, pointing to questionable disbursements. DepEd is being questioned about the significant number of "ghost beneficiaries" in its system; these are students who exist only on paper but get financing as if they were real enrollees.
Unseen Receipts
DepEd faces a challenge in tracking billions in senior high school subsidies, as it cannot physically confirm the existence of every student receiving government vouchers.
Fake beneficiaries take away essential resources from deserving students and teachers, affecting the quality of education.
According to a Commission on Audit, millions of pesos were disbursed to individuals who had already resigned, stopped, or did not exist in official records.
Tracking the lost millions
The issue raises concerns about transparency, corruption, and financial mismanagement within the country’s education sector.
Since 2016-2017, the Commission on Audit has uncovered cases of "ghost students" in the senior high voucher program with some being billed multiple times in the same school year.
A 2018 audit exposed more flaws, including the lack of clear directives from DepEd for verifying billing statements; this implies that there are inconsistencies in validation.
The issue persisted, and by March 2024, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian revealed that up to 19,000 undocumented beneficiaries might exist in DepEd’s broader education assistance program (E-GASTPE).
Ghost beneficiaries lead to misallocating public funds which indicates fewer resources for rightful students and educators, as well as a decline in public trust in government institutions.
Hunting for Accountability
DepEd’s failure to set clear validation guidelines has led to inconsistent verification processes across regional and division offices—allowing fraudulent activities to persist.
DepEd Chief Sonny Angara aims to implement stricter safeguards for verifying SHS voucher claims to prevent future incidents. He also emphasized the importance of a more advanced authentication system to identify fraudulent or erroneous claims.
“In this day and age, there should be… a new technology that we can use to validate,” Angara stated in an interview.
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