Author: Sittie NB Pasandalanb (Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology)

Despite the reality of reduced budgets of the education sector especially of state universities and colleges (SUCs), institutions of learning have a good share of the annual National Expenditure Plan of the government. Generally, appropriations of SUCs can be categorized into three: Personnel Services (PS), Capital Outlay (CO), and Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE). Of these three categories, the MOOE should be of great interest as this gives insight to how a higher education institution (HEI) of the government utilizes government funds, ergo tax payers’ money.

MOOE is funds to be used for necessities (such as electricity and water) and for activities. HEIs are institutions expected to promote conservation of energy, it is worthy to look into the electricity and water bills of HEIs as these would speak of how HEIs are walking the talk. As employees of HEIs are taxpayers themselves, spending for activities should be examined to determine judiciousness in utilizing government funds, ergo taxpayers’ money. 

There is the disconnect between spending from one’s own pocket to spending from another’s pocket. Most likely, one finds it easier to spend from another’s pocket than one’s own. This begs the question of whether employees in HEIs (taxpayers in HEIs) can connect with the funds allocated to HEIs as taxes they have paid to the government, ergo their money. 

In the case of MSU-IIT, the MOOE for 2021 amounted to Php 297,321,732.24 (from Php 222,402,237.68 in 2020). The question on how the amount was utilized and if the expenses are necessities or mere expenditures to utilize funds allocated by the government begs to be answered. 

This article is a reflection on the OCDex 2022 Fellowship Programme for Researchers

For more information about the article, please reach out to the author: sittie.pasandalan@g.msuiit.edu.ph or Layertech labs support at learning@layertechlab.com