P241-M TESDA scholars’ program shot with flaws

A SCHOLARSHIP program of former President and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga worth P241 million was deemed as failure because the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and its partner failed to furnish monthly progress reports on the success of the scholarship, disbursement of funds, and other required data for monitoring and evaluation.

In January 2009, Tesda’s Pangulong Gloria Scholarships (PGS) with Tek-Bok Providers (TBP) aimed to ensure that at least 60 percent of their graduates are employed immediately after graduation or within twelve months after the completion of training.

However, the Commission on Audit (COA) bared that among the 17 regions in the country, only Central Visayas (Region VII) notched 10 percent higher than the 60-percent mark at 70 percent.

The rate of employment in Region I is only 36 percent, Region II at 29 percent, Region III at 11 percent, Region IV-A at 5.68 percent, Region IV-B at 2 and Region V at 10 percent.
In the Visayas, Regions VI and VIII closed in both at 26 percent.

In Mindanao, Region IX’ rate at 28 percent, Region X at 10 percent, Region XI at 13 percent, Region XII at 23 percent, and the Caraga Region at 14 percent.

The Autonomous Regions in Muslim Mindana and Cordillera had 2 percent and 38 percent employment rate, respectively.

The National Capital Region had 9.7 percent rate.

“Moreover, there were also programs which were not able to provide reports on its employment status despite [COA] efforts to request for one during our audit . . . As a result, it was noted that the reports relative to the status of employment were either incomplete or that no report at all were provided by the training institutions,” COA revealed.

In the memorandum of agreement, both Tesda and TBP agreed that TBP “shall provide Tesda with monthly progress reports” on the scholarship.

State auditors disclosed that Tesda entered into agreement with 22 organizations under the Enterprise-Based Group Training Scheme (EBGTS ) in 2009 with total obligations amounting to P241,693,265.

Among the 22 partners and 31,812 graduates, the biggest allocation was allotted to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), the umbrella association for the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines which comprises 139 training institutions, at P151.57 million with 24,612 graduates.

Through sampling, state auditors confirmed if the graduates have been employed within the twelve-month period and got in touch with the graduates.

Out of 211 sampled graduates, only 50 or 23.7 percent were employed.

“Out of those employed, there is a probability that 42 graduates or 86 percent of those employed were not actually scholars of PGS and yet payment for training fees amounting to P210,000 was made to People 2 Outsource through BPAP. Verification showed that 42 of the alleged graduates were already undergoing training being conducted by a call center company when they were made to sign in the scholarship vouchers by some training providers who visited their call center company,” the Commission revealed.

The audit team revealed that a certain Eric S. Cruz confessed that there was no actual training and he was made to receive P750 “to pretend that the training had been conducted.”

Another Alfredo M. Jison said that they did not actually undergo training in but were still made to fill-up and sign documents.

Also, another Joyce Ann M. Valencia, said that “she signed the PGS Voucher, received P300 as allowance, and that there was no actual training.”

COA said that when they reviewed the MOA entered between Tesda and BPAP, the low employment rate was attributed to the absence of penalty clause in the agreement between TESDA and TBP “in case the latter failed to attain the targeted 60 percent employment rate.”

There was also inadequate monitoring and reporting system strategy in monitoring the employment status of scholars; lack of re-evaluation procedures on whether to continue or discontinue the courses; and exclusion in the MOA of the obligation on the part of the graduates to report back to either TBP or TESDA regarding their employment.

The PGS objective of ensuring the employment of the graduates “was not attained,” the Commission said. –John Constantine Cordon, Manila Times