COA chief also baffled why previous audits failed to unearth anomalies

Gracia Pulido Tan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Commission on Audit chairperson Gracia Pulido-Tan on Thursday admitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that she was equally clueless on why resident auditors before her time were not able to spot the anomalies involving the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Answering Senator Alan Peter Cayetano’s question whether resident auditors included the PDAF in their reports, Pulido-Tan said, “I am not really comfortable answering that. Because I don’t know that for a fact.”

She said she was already planning to ask the people involved and why they failed to find what their recent special audit had uncovered for the years 2007 to 2009.

Pulido-Tan revealed that she had specifically asked resident auditors to include the PDAF in their audit focus starting 2011 when they began to discover the anomalies mentioned in the special audit report.

She said the report was made even before the pork barrel scam involving Janet Lim-Napoles was revealed.

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