In its 2022 review, the Commission on Audit (COA) questioned the UP System administration for repeating past years’ problems in its budget use and failures to adhere to government procurement law, which affected the “timeliness and efficient delivery of [UP’s] services and program implementation.”

In the same vein as last year’s report, COA noted that there is still P8 million unutilized revolving fund and noncompliance with the procurement laws which resulted in “significant delays” of various projects, and, worse, their eventual termination.

This led to the setbacks of big-ticket projects, such as the P50 million renovation of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Nurses Home and the termination of 21 infrastructure projects across UP campuses that cost about P930 million.

Delayed Cure

COA noted that the delays and non-use of funds contradict the cash-based budgeting system mandated by the annual budget which requires funds to be utilized within one year.

The university has failed to completely spend funds from the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for programs geared toward the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response.

State auditors noted that these fund transfers to UP were supposed to help the government’s pandemic-related programs, thus “it is of utmost importance to fully implement and complete research projects on time.”

A fair amount of the human resources for PGH’s health program, which is an initiative to address the shortage of healthcare workers, was also not used. The grant for participants in the NUS LEARN Programme was also highlighted for non-disbursement. A P100-million fund for infrastructure projects in UP Baguio was also unutilized.

“The non-utilization of the allotted budget revenue for the year signifies delays in the full and timely implementation of planned programs/projects and unnecessarily kept idle the allocated funds for said projects, which could otherwise be used to pursue other equally important projects,” read part of the report.

UP saw a splurge in infrastructure projects, a flagship program of former UP President Danilo Concepcion. This year, P1.5 billion of UP’s budget is allocated just to fulfill his infrastructure plans, which include PGH renovations and the construction of different dormitories.

Prolonged Pains

COA also reported that UP issued numerous suspension orders and extensions that prolonged the completion of infrastructure projects, ranging from three months to seven years. Auditors said that these orders should not exist as delays in issues and revisions could have been resolved during the projects’ planning stage.

UP Mindanao’s Aquatics Center Phase 1, for example, which started in 2017 in Davao, is now delayed for about four years and suffered a P72-million loss due to “deficiencies in implementation.” The campus-wide interconnectivity and accessibility project in UP Baguio, meanwhile, will now issue a termination order to the contractor due to significant delays.

State auditors noted that it is not only bad planning that caused delays, but also noncompliance with the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA), which is meant to standardize procurement activities in the country. This same lax treatment of the act also affected the eUP project which went through an almost six-year delay.

The eUP project is the controversial flagship initiative of former UP President Alfredo Pascual that is geared toward the development of an integrated university-wide ICT system. Its most known part, the Student Academic Information System, has been plagued by numerous complaints for years now.

The multimillion peso project suffered massive delays caused by not enforcing “proper sanctions” and the “non-submission of other deliverables," which resulted in liquidated damages in the implementation of the project that amounted to P134 million.

Irregularities in the eUP project are not new since the project’s alleged violations of procurement laws were reported as early as 2016. In that year, two journalism students published a thesis that exposed the UP administration’s favor for US-based Oracle for the project, which was a violation of the GPRA.

Unsecured Future

The university's procurement lapses are not limited to infrastructure alone, but to hiring essential personnel as well.

The COA report questioned the Bids and Award Committee of UP Diliman (UPD) for recommending the award of a P102-million services contract to Femjeg, despite the latter’s non-compliance with the requirements of public bidding.

State auditors reported that Femjeg did not meet certain requirements in the required bidding documents, such as the certification that it can advance salaries for three months and the authority to operate outside the principal office issued by the Philippine National Police.

Femjeg was hounded by multiple complaints from numerous accounts due to its notorious mistreatment of workers and massive layoffs. Last year, over 140 security guards were laid off due to Femjeg’s takeover, with little to no care in rehiring existing security guards.

UPD eventually terminated Femjeg’s contract on August 15, 2022 “due to default and unlawful acts.”

“The terms and conditions for contract of security services are tedious and compliance of the bidders would require substantial time to be carefully scrutinized,” state auditors noted. “It may be more beneficial for the University to conduct an early bidding… This may also allow the prospective bidders to prepare and manage their deployed personnel effectively.”

UP is continuously badgered by delays and terminations since COA’s recommendations are seldom solved. In total, 71 recommendations of 207 were reiterated since last year’s audit reports.

“The unnecessary delay in completion as well as the abandonment of other projects deprived the intended users of the immediate benefits to be derived therefrom,” state auditors wrote. ●