Ched Rick Gatchalian

Commission on Higher Education. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File.

 

Article (news)

COA flags CHED’s Free Higher Education program for P295-M overpayment to local colleges

Kaxandra Salonga

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176760398677020170927-ched-md-2.jpg" style="width:960px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Commission on Higher Education. <em>Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File.</em></span></span></span>MANILA — Lapses in the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) implementation of the Free Higher Education (FHE) program resulted to more than P295 million in overpayments to three local universities and colleges, according to a 2024 Commission on Audit (COA) report.</div><p>State auditors said overpayments were caused by billing errors and ineligible or excessive fees that the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) and the CHED Central Office failed to detect due to deficient control mechanisms.</p><p>Tangub City Global College accounted for the largest overpayment worth more than P220 million, incurred between academic year 2018-2019 and the first semester of 2024-2025.</p><p>The COA said these were partly attributed to it charging erroneous athletic, cultural, and development fees. For instance, the school charged P2,300 in cultural fees instead of the board-approved P100 and P1,230 in athletic fees instead of the approved P130.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/1/5/coa-discovers-ghost-ineligible-students-in-deped-shs-voucher-program-1337">COA discovers &#x27;ghost,&#x27; ineligible students in DepEd SHS voucher program</a></div><p>Meanwhile, Pamantasan ng Cabuyao (PNC) received more than P55 million in overpayments for AY 2018-2019 through the second semester of AY 2021-2022.</p><p>Auditors said the school billed P1,880 for development fees, above the P1,100 rate approved by its Board of Trustees, and also overcharged for library and guidance fees.</p><p>Gordon College was likewise flagged for P19 million in overpayments between AY 2019-2020 and the second semester of AY 2023-2024, including P18.25 million in lab fees for an Audio-Visual Room that auditors said did not qualify as a laboratory facility.</p><p>Moreover, COA found that the three institutions billed all enrollees for School ID and Handbook fees every semester, despite regulations stating these should be charged only to incoming first-year students.</p><p>The audit body directed CHED to issue demand letters to the three colleges to recover the overpaid amounts, and to implement a stricter validation process.</p><p>In response, CHED and the concerned schools have committed to reconcile their billing records and improve internal monitoring.</p><div> </div><div><strong>P647-M worth of unliquidated CMSPs</strong></div><p>State auditors also called out CHED for failing to liquidate P647 million worth of its CHED Merit Scholarship Programs (CMSPs) disbursements during Academic Years 2019–2020 up to 2023–2024.</p><p>The audit body said funds transferred to higher education institutions under CHED Regional Office IV-B Mimaropa and Regional Office XII Soccsksargen remained unliquidated because the schools had not submitted reports or documents showing how they spent the scholarship money.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/12/ched-asks-p33-9-b-allocation-in-2026-budget-to-sustain-free-college-program-1808">CHEd asks P33.9-B allocation in 2026 budget to sustain free college program</a></div><p>“The non-liquidation and non-submission of reports and supporting documents by the recipient institutions not only prevents the determination of the propriety of payments to the student-grantees and timely accounting/recording thereof, but also exposes the said funds to risk of misuse especially those that remained outstanding for significant period,” the report read.</p><p>CHED Region IV-B, which accounted for P12 million of the unliquidated funds, said it will send demand letters to the affected institutions for immediate liquidation.</p><p>Meanwhile, CHED Region XII said it has yet to liquidate P635 million in CMSPs due to limited manpower and high volume of transactions. The agency said it prioritized releasing scholarship grants over monitoring liquidations to meet the urgent needs of students.</p><p>CHED agreed with the audit recommendations to improve monitoring by regional coordinators, submit liquidation reports immediately, and withhold subsequent fund releases until liquidation reports are submitted.</p>

<p>Lapses in the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) implementation of the Free Higher Education (FHE) program resulted to more than P295 million in overpayments to three local universities and colleges, according to a 2024 Commission on Audit (COA) report.</p>

Lapses in the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) implementation of the Free Higher Education (FHE) program resulted to more than P295 million in overpayments to three local universities and colleges, according to a 2024 Commission on Audit (COA) report.