Rating University Quality

Editor's note: We received the following email from former University of the Philippines in the Visayas Chancellor Flor Lacanilao. We are posting this in view of its timeliness and newsworthiness regarding the topic of U.P.'s heroic attempts to buttres its international standings in research:

 

"Sharing my posted comment on the article in today's Inquirer (copied below) about university rankings:

The only way to start improving education in the country is to appoint people properly trained for the job. And the easiest way to find out if one has made any major contributions to one's field is with the ISI data base called Web of Knowledge. You can get nearly the same information (published papers and citations) from Google Scholar, by counting only those published in peer-reviewed international journals -- those covered in Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index. 

You will be surpised to learn that nearly all of those running our education institutions, including our major universities like the four mentioned in this article, lack such publications. That is, they are not properly trained or have not made any major contributions to their fields."

 

Read the rest here.

Systemwide Student Leaders Convention with President-elect Pascual Updates by UPV-USC Rep. Liezyl Ann Gomez

Editor's note: The following Facebook post by Kristian Jacob Abad Lora was posted on the Facebook page of Incoming University of the Philippines (U.P.) President Alfredo E. Pascual, and is a narration of a live update by incumbent UP Visayas-UP Cebu College Representative to UP University Student Council Liezyl Ann Gomez on a visit of Systemwide student leaders with Mr. Pascual last January 23.

Mr. Pascual's six-year term as U.P. President starts on February 10, 2011, replacing Outgoing U.P. President Emerlinda R. Roman, who will resume her teaching position as a professor at the College of Business Administration at U.P. Diliman

By Kristian Jacob Abad Lora on Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 8:52pm

Sa lahat ng mga Iskolar, Guro, at Kawani ng Bayan, narito ang ilan sa mga importanteng pahayag ng ating bagong pangulong si President-elect Alfredo Pascual sa Systemwide Student Leaders Convention with President-elect Pascual, Enero 23, kanina.

"Unang-una ang UP ay public university, and we have to protect its public character."

"I will not agree to the budget cut and I will raise protest against it."

"No military presence in UP campuses."

Magaganda at promising nga ang mga naging pahayag ni G. Pascual sa kumbensyon. Sana'y magpatuloy siyang maging kakampi nating lahat at hindi lang ng iilan. Sana'y patuloy siyang kaakibat natin sa pag-uphold ng demokrasya sa loob ng pamantasan at sa pag-uphold "public character" ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas bilang Unibersidad ng at para sa Bayan.

Padayon lalo na sa ating pagmamatyag! SERVE THE PEOPLE! GOD BLESS! ^^,

Credits to the incumbent UP Visayas-UP Cebu College Representative to UP University Student Council Liezyl Ann Gomez for the live update.

U.P. Board of Regents Defuses Another Land Commercialization Landmine

By Oz Mendoza

The December 17, 2010 end-of-the-year meeting of the University of the Philippines (U.P.) Board of Regents (BOR) was a subdued affair in which the main topic of discussion involved the land-lease issues of U.P. Visayas.

However, the stands of the BOR's sectoral representatives -- Faculty Regent Judy M. Taguiwalo, Staff Regent Clodualdo "Buboy" Cabrera, and Student Regent Jacque Eroles was a familiar one, expressing concern over the commercialization of university-owned properties.

The BOR also discussed the fate of U.P. College of Law Dean Marvic Leonen, who has offered his resignation over an alleged instance of plagiarism. However, the BOR has deferred their resolution on the matter to January, 2011. Student Regent Jacque Eroles said that the BOR received so much documentation regarding the Leonen issue, they did not have enough time to go through all of it.

The UP Visayas issue under discussion revolved around the lease of land for use as an on-campus "love nature park." The UP sectoral representatives voiced several objections to the park project. First of all, they are concerned about the proposed park's potential impact on security, given that it would open the UP Visayas campus to a large number of visitors. They are also concerned about the environmental issues involved, and have asked to see an environmental impact report on the project.

Student Regent Jacque Eroles questioned whether the park would actually provide any benefits to U.P. Visayas students. She said that any revenue from the park appears more likely to be funneled to commercial interests, rather than to meeting the needs of the student body. The sectoral representatives agreed that the Visayas park project is another instance of the commercialization of U.P. land that may be in conflict with the spirit of the university charter.

Outgoing Faculty Regent Judy M. Taguiwalo called for greater accountability in the evaluation process of projects concerned with generating inconme from UP-owned land tracts. She noted that that the UP Charter provides for the implementation of land leases only under the conditions that the land use does not undermine the academic mission of UP, and that the area leased should be outside the academic core zone of the UP campuses. 

Taguiwalo emphasized that no uniform process exists for the review and approval of projects to lease out UP land. She says that any such process should examine how a project would affect UP's academic mission, and require consultation with the faculty, the student body, and the university community.

COA's 2009 Consolidated Audited Annual Report unearths more Money Management problems at the University of the Philippines

The Commission on Audit's (COA) 2009 Consolidated Audited Annual Reports is bringing to light more disclosures about how taxpayer's money remains unaccounted for at the University of the Philippines (U.P.), at a time when U.P. faces unprecedented budget cuts upon the recommendation of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). 

DBM Secretary Florencio Abad has said that part of the basis for its determination of the 2011 national budget is partly based on COA reports about an agency or institution. By that standard, U.P.looks like it has problems in fiscal management - and if this is left unaddressed - weakens its institutional credibility as it demands for a higher budget from Congress in 2011. Legislators will want to know that U.P. has sufficient controls to ensure that the money is not "lost" and unaccounted for.

For example, COA said the UP Diliman manner of recording income realized but not yet collected from its auxiliary and income generating activities did not conform with the usual accrual method of accounting, which is a norm. Instead, what U.P. does is to recognize income by recording it as Other Deferred Credits account instead of an appropriate Income account thus, overstating and understating respectively these aforementioned accounts by at least P17.59 million as of December 31, 2009.

Auditors say this can lead to possible corruption known as “kiting”, because by understating actual income for a given year, then the understated income can be spent without the auditors looking for this money in bank balances or through receipts and vouchers, etcetera.

COA is recommending that the U.P. Diliman Administration require the Accounting Office to prepare a Journal Entry Voucher to adjust the identified erroneous credit made to Other Deferred Credits account, and to henceforth comply strictly with the prescribed government accounting system.

The 2009 Consolidated Audited Annual Report (CAAR) of COA also pointed out that the balances of Cash in Bank Local Currency-Current Accounts and Savings Accounts (LCCA & LCSA) of P152.48 million of U.P. Manila and Visayas and Foreign Currency Account of $187,674.61 of U.P. Manila were misstated due to unreconciled differences between the books and bank balances amounting to P131.90 million and $104,809.07 respectively, due to the failure of the Accounting Division to prepare and update the bank reconciliation statements (BRS).

In other words, COA is probably being overly polite by referring to the window dressing by the U.P. Administration of its books of accounts as it claims that UP Manila-PGH it was in actual possession of taxpayer funds worth P 142,689,776.86 when it reality the U.P.'s own bank balances for UP Manila-PGH only showed the existence of funds worth P 74,480,379.96 or a staggering variance of P131,790,603.10. Where did this money go? Did university officials dip their hands in the cookie jar one too many times? Perhaps or even perhaps not. However, such endless speculation may be quieted once and for all, if only U.P. officials would simply follow Section 74 of P.D. No. 1445, otherwise known as the State Audit Code of the Philippines, COA said.

P.D. No. 1445 provides that: “At the close of each month, depositories shall report to the agency head, in such form as he may direct, the condition of the agency account standing on their books. The head of the agency shall see to it that reconciliation is made between the balance shown in the report and the balance found in the books of the agency.”

“The reconciliation of cash in bank account balances with bank records provides a periodic determination of the validity of cash balances appearing in the books of the agency concerned. Bank reconciliation statements prepared on a regular and timely basis is an essential control over these cash accounts. The agency accountant shall draw journal vouchers to record all valid reconciling items that require adjustment and correction in the General Ledger

COA's 2009 CAAR also found that U.P. Visayas said that it had at least P 9,787,307.82 in its books, when it reality it had P 9,897,874.82, or a positive variance of P 110,567.00 which, while it might seem like a happy problem, was still problematic from a COA perspective, because it showed that accountants were not practicing sufficient levels of rigor that was in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP).

In terms of foreign currency holdings, UP Manila-PGH said that it had at least $187,674.61 in its books, but actual bank statements only proved that it was in possession of $292,483.68 or a positive variance of $104,809.07 which again makes it difficult for COA auditors to determine the path of the money trail in terms of where this money comes from and where it is going.

With this article, the Diliman Diary continues to update, incrementally, a broader article which interprets and reports on COA's 2009 report on the whole U.P. System. Interested readers and policy makers may access the U.P. System article here: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/11/breaking-news-coa-releases-2009-audit_05.html. The Diliman Diary has also embedded the U.P. System article within an even broader article that interprets and reports on COA's 2009 CAARs on Metro Manila based State Universities and Colleges. This article may be accessed at this link: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/11/state-universities-and-colleges-are.html