The Commission on Audit (COA) has deplored the inclusion of “ghost students” and other ineligible beneficiaries in the Department of Education’s (DepEd) program on Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE)-Senior High School-Voucher Program (SHS-VP) in 2024.

The program is aimed at reducing public school overcrowding and increasing the choices for students by giving them financial aid in senior high school (Grades 11 and 12) in the form of vouchers redeemable in VP-participating SHSs.

But in its 2024 audit report, the COA said there were several instances where the Voucher Program Beneficiaries (VPB) were double billed in the same school and other VP-participating schools due to inadequate verification procedures and system controls.

It said the instances indicative of "ghost students" include significant number of absent VPBs which could not be explained by school officials, VPBs billed under a specific school campus mode but attend classes in a different school campus mode, VPBs listed as "enrolled" but have not attended classes since the start of the semester, and VPBs listed multiple times in the same school or in different VP-participating SHS.

The COA said that based on DepEd’s records from 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024, there were 33 identified schools with duplicate VPBs.

From these schools, it said there were 27 double-billed grantees of same VPBs with different learner reference numbers (LRNs) listed and billed in the same school, 12 of same VPBs with different LRNs listed and billed in two different schools, and 722 of same VPBs and LRNs listed and billed in two different schools which resulted in total overpayment of P868,500.

"The foregoing circumstances indicated a lack of adequate validation at various levels of the program implementation... prior to the processing of payments," the COA said.

"In addition, there appears to be a lack of preventive system controls, particularly in the creation, assignment, and validation of LRNs, as well as mechanisms intended to detect duplicate records, such as multiple entries bearing the same LRN or identical learner names within the same billing cycle," it also said.

It told the DepEd to immediately require the refund of established overpayments made to SHS-VP -participating schools and impose appropriate sanctions against the VP-participating schools found to have committed program violations involving misrepresentation or intentional inclusion of "ghost" beneficiaries.

At the same time, the COA said in its report that there were beneficiaries coming from prestigious and high-tuition private schools due to the absence of clearly-defined eligibility criteria and financial need-based parameters in the program.

It said that 3,356 grantees from prestigious and high-tuition private schools received P62,870,000 aid from the program in 2024, which the audit team said is indicative that the SHS-VP may not have been subjected to adequate assessment.

"While the program's main objective does not intend to exclude or discriminate against any learner -- given that equal enjoyment of rights and privileges is constitutionally guaranteed -- the law mandates that preference be given to underprivileged students," the COA stressed. stressed.

It recommended that DepEd should develop and implement clearer eligibility criteria based on family income and other relevant indicators of financial capacity or socio-economic status to ensure that public resources are directed towards students with the greatest need.