COA ready to relax audit requirements for gov’t agencies

Photo from COA’s Facebook page

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) on Tuesday said it is willing to ease its requirements for auditing programs of government agencies.

During a COA briefing for the House committee on public accounts, Director Gloria Balboa, of the Department of Health-National Capital Region (DOH-NCR), said some hospitals had a hard time submitting requirements, thus, affecting the distribution of allowance for healthcare workers.

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said these requirements are from the COA as part of its auditing functions.

Asked about this, COA chairperson Michael Aguinaldo said that in the past, they have eased the requirements for government agencies such as in the social amelioration program of the Department of Social and Welfare Development.

“Dahil kung mayroong some requirements that are perhaps not apt under the present circumstances, puwede naman kami sulatan at tanungin kung puwedeng i-relax ‘yung ibang requirements,” the COA chief said.

“Pwede namang i-revisit ‘yang mga ‘yan… We know it’s pandemic, we know that some adjustments have to be made,” he added.

The briefing was held in light of the COA report which showed “deficiencies” amounting to at least P67 billion in the 2020 pandemic funds of the DOH.

COA has since clarified that this particular report is not concluding any corruption on the part of the DOH, but was only pointing out certain deficiencies in the management of the budget and offering recommendations to help the health agency rectify issues.

KGA