Chairman Guillermo N. Carague has unveiled the New Government
Accounting System (NGAS) which will replace the almost half-century-old and
outmoded present system.
Now known as the “Father of the New Government Accounting
System,” Chairman Carague presented the work to top COA officials during a
three-day orientation seminar held at the SAADO Auditorium on November 14-16,
2001.
The NGAS is now embodied and prescribed in COA Circular No.
2001-004 dated October 30, 2001 which was issued to all heads of National
Government Agencies by the COA Commission Proper composed of Chairman Carague
and Commissioners Raul C. Flores and Emmanuel M. Dalman. It takes effect on
January 1, 2002
“We have done it in four months and COA has now come out
with this new accounting system at practically no cost to the government except
for the coffee and biscuits we consumed while working on it,” Chairman Carague
told the COA assistant commissioners, directors and assistant directors present.
Giving recognition to those who assisted him in producing the
NGAS, the Chairman said the work is in itself a fitting tribute to the
professional competence of COAns involved in the project.
The Chairman said the conceptualization, design and actual
production of the NGAS would have cost the government somewhere between P1-2
billion had foreign consultants been hired to do the job.
“And while we have finished the NGAS in four months, the
foreign consultants could not have finished it in a year because bidding for the
project alone would have taken about seven months to complete,” he added.
Chairman Carague said the computerization of the NGAS which
is the other main component of the project, is expected to be finished in just
six months. “We’re coming out with the computerized NGAS in January or
February 2002,” he added.
Mr. Carague said 25 computer experts from the Polytechnic
University of the Philippines (PUP), a government agency, have been hired for
the job which, he estimated, would cost the Commission on Audit only a total
of P6 Million for a period of six months or P1 million per month. The
cost of NGAS computerization for the entire government bureaucracy is estimated
at about P50-million.
The P6-million cost for the NGAS computerization at COA, Mr.
Carague explained, is almost negligible compared to some P25-million that would
have been incurred per month had foreign consultants been hired to do the same
job.
