CHED’s R8-B tuition reimbursements ‘almost complete’

Contrary to earlier reports alleging “very low disbursements” of the R8-billion Free Tuition Fund to state universities and colleges (SUCs), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said yesterday that the 2017 Free Tuition reimbursements to SUCs are “almost complete.”

CHED, in a statement issued by Officer-in-Charge Prospero De Vera III, said that almost all of the 112 SUCs “have been reimbursed for the first and second semesters of AY 2017-2018” contrary to reports quoting Commission on Audit (COA) Annual Audit Reports alleging that there very low disbursements of the R8-billion Free Tuition Fund to SUCs.

De Vera noted that there are only two SUCs namely the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy and Adiong Memorial Polytechnic State College that “have received no reimbursements.” This is because the former “has a separate budget allocation for tuition in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2017” while the latter “was not able to report income in their Budget Expenditure and Sources of Financing (BESF) for 2017.”

“The balance left from the P8B fund are being processed for reimbursements for the summer or midterm of AY 20172018 claims of SUCs, and those that have appealed and presented additional billings based on actual enrollment numbers in said academic year,” De Vera said.

Earlier, the COA flagged CHED’s “low fund utilization” noting that the Commission failed to fully utilize various education programs funded out of P12.31 billion made available by the government.