SEN. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros on Thursday urged the Senate to investigate the alleged anomalous release of funds to a scholarship body under the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).

The Commission on Audit (CoA) flagged the release of P7 billion to the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST).

The UniFAST is an attached agency under CHEd meant to implement Republic Act 10931 or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.”

“Surely recklessness at this level of billions of pesos is not acceptable for a government agency,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“It is our responsibility in Congress to guard against leakages that waste important resources needed by our schools and students,” she added.

Hontiveros said UniFAST is supposed to be “the answer to the gap” in education for millions of underprivileged youth.

“And yet the program is stained with suspicious overpayments and double reimbursements. This could be just the tip of the iceberg of dubious practices in CHEd-UniFAST,” she said.

Based on CoA’s report, UniFAST had P3.4 billion worth of delayed and nonsubmissions of billings and documents to state and universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs). Some submissions were delayed up to three years while others had no record of billing.

The senator said that UniFAST made P824 million worth of payments to SUCs and LUCs without official receipts.

Hontiveros said UniFAST’s overpayment of P131 million to certain SUCs, and P251 million to already fully subsidized LUCs was in direct violation of RA 10931. She added that the CoA report is “enough to show that the agency’s lapses need to be explained.”

“For a country experiencing an education crisis, I am shocked by the billions we have been careless with. RA 10931 is a leap toward our dreams of education for all. But it does nothing if the money doesn’t reach our students and schools,” Hontiveros said.