AROUND 97 percent or about P40 billion of the allocation for Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education or E-GASTPE for the 2024 budget was utilized.

This was confirmed by the Department of Education in a hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Basic Education led by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.

E-GASTPE is DepEd’s largest private school scholarship program, especially on the expansion of the existing Educational Service Contracting or ESC scheme.

During the hearing, DepEd’s Government Assistance and Subsidies Office Director Tara Rama said their office is waiting for other schools to submit their billing statements to fully use the budget.

“We’re already at 97 percent of our utilization because some of the schools – ito na lang po ‘yung hinihintay natin. Billings from the regional office and then our partner in PEAC na hinihintay pa po natin ‘yung billings nila na ma-receive natin sa central office so that we can verify again and pay them,” Rama said.

The DepEd created Rama’s office last year in response to previous issues of ghost students and to a recommendation by the Commission on Audit to focus on administering the E-GASTPE program.

She said DepEd is implementing a more meticulous process of verification of program beneficiaries, which reportedly caused delays in payment to private schools.

“It is because we provided another layer of verification in the central office. This verification is when we receive the billings of the private schools, we do a run or binabangga po natin ‘yung billing statements nila with our Learner Information System,” Rama said, adding that the entire process takes two to three weeks.