COA, whoa!

PRESIDENT Duterte on his frustra­tions with the Commission on Audit: “Ihulog sa hagdan.” Push them down the stairs.

COA Commissioner’s advice to audi­tors: “Avoid the stairs.”

Presidential Spokesman Sal Panelo at­tributed Mr. Duterte’s threat to his usu­al hyperbolic language, a result of the agonizingly meticulous care with which state auditors study every peso and cen­tavo spent by public “servants” who earn more than their masters. Just for the heck of it, I spent a few minutes every morning for several weeks last year try­ing to catch my breath as I read newspa­per accounts of how COA “flagged” this and that project, everything from travel expenses to unliquidated amounts, from toilets to tax credits, that came up to billions that seemed to have just disap­peared into a black hole in the cosmos.

It was almost bizarre, that every other day our scrupulous auditors had some­thing huge to report in the period from June 27, 2018 when I started taking notes, up to Oct. 31 when I stopped, only because boredom had won over my curiosity. Next to the work of an elevator boy, that of accounting/auditing must be the least exciting in the world, an ob­servation that Butch Valdes, a CPA and incidentally a senatorial candidate, and former COA Commissioner Fe Barin will surely not share. Mr. Valdes: “A CPA in COA is tasked to examine financial trans­actions and evaluate their veracity. They interpret documents to see if they are in accordance with accounting principles; that’s how anomalies are discovered.” Ms. Barin: “Auditors must go slow but they cannot keep [project implementors] waiting with a sword of Damocles hang­ing over their heads.”

Based on my notes in red and purple ink, COA did not spare Malacañang or the Vice President, and named the big spenders as PNP, PCSO, GSIS, DOH, LWUA, LRTA, DILG, BuCor, PDEA (in reference to “safe keeping” of R6.8 B of illegal drugs). Manila was chided for funding 27 ghost barangays. DoTr scold­ed for “slow disbursement” of funds for jeepneys modernization. Seeds procured by Philcoa grossly “overpriced.” National Museum projects sans supporting docu­ments. R1.3 B for the poor went “un­used.” Building occupied by Ombudsman incomplete, uninsured. R18.6 B for 4P’s in unliquidated, unclaimed benefits. R5 B paid by NFA for maturing loans instead of food security. And more mind-bog­gling sums.

On Sept. 12, 2018 Digong called on LGUs to “defy stupid COA circulars.” The silence of 8,000 auditors nationwide has been deafening. Then again, “stupid” is the qualifier.