The decision to revisit
and eventually reinstitute pre-audit, albeit selective, through COA Circular
2009 – 002 of May 18, 2009 is proving to be a boldest and decisive leadership
stroke for its timeliness.
Coming amidst insistent calls from stakeholders of government, members of
legislature, a concerned populace, political and religious leaders, the academe,
the business sector, financial institutions both local and international, for
government to rein in pervasive graft and corruption, the move to reinstitute
selective pre-audit is being perceived to restore to a very great degree the
government’s ability to arrest corruption and its debilitating effect on the
economy, national development and governance on the whole.
Constant awareness of its base constitutional mandate has allowed COA to be
resilient as to be capable of realigning and shifting paradigms in response to
specific calls of the times. Seen in this light, the move for COA’s
reinstitution of Pre-Audit was part of the policy directions adopted by the new
COA leadership immediately upon assumption of office.
To ensure appropriate preparations for the eventual implementation of
pre-audit scheduled on the first day of August 2009, the Assistant Commissioners
headed by Assistant Commissioner Jaime P. Naranjo, farmed themselves out to
cover COA regional offices in the different regions beginning on the 18th of
June through the first week of July, holding briefings for auditors, other
officials and personnel of the Commission on the guidelines pursuant to COA
Circular 2009-002; Assistant Commissioner Isabel D.Agito partnered with
Assistant Commissioner Carmela S. Perez to cover Regions I, XII, ARMM and the
CAR, while Assistant Commissioners Elizabeth S. Zosa and Assistant Commissioner
Gloria S. Cornejo worked Regions II and VII; Assistant Commissioner Emma M
Espina and Assistant Commissioner Lourdes M. Castillo did Region V, Assistant
Commissioner Arcadio B. Cuenco,Jr., and Assistant Commissioner Jaime P. Naranjo
covered Regions IX, X, XI and XIII; all by herself, Assistant Commissioner
Lourdes M. Castillo did Region III and VI, likewise, Assistant Commissioner Emma
M. Espina covered all by herself Region VIII; finally, all together the
Assistant Commissioners did the National Capital Region and Region IV.
Similar briefings on the pre-audit guidelines were likewise held for
officials of the national agencies, government corporate institutions, and heads
of local government units at the auditorium of the Professional Development
Center ( PDC ) of the Commission on Audit.
Continuing information dissemination on the pre-audit guidelines will be
undertaken for both COA auditors and officials of auditee agencies.
Pre-Audit, Rationale for its Reinstitution, and its Definition, some salient
features:
COA Circular 2009-002 of May 18, 2009 adopts and reinstitutes selective
pre-audit on the basis of the "rising incidents of illegal, irregular, wasteful
and anomalous disbursements of huge amounts of public funds, marked inadequacies
in the internal controls as exemplified by anomalies uncovered or reported after
assessment of risk-prone areas in government operations."
Pre-Audit is the examination of documents supporting a particular transaction
or series of transactions before these are paid for and recorded, and is meant
to determine the transaction’s compliance with appropriation law and other
specific statutory authority and regulations, to assure availability and
sufficiency of funds, initially determine the transaction is not illegal,
irregular, extravagant, unconscionable, excessive or unnecessary, and to
determine the transaction is approved by proper authority, and supported by
authentic underlying evidence.
All national government agencies, local government units and government owned
or controlled corporations with original charters will be covered by pre-audit;
and the specific scope are enumerated as follows: cash advances, payments of
salaries and terminal leave benefits, payments for infrastructure projects,
payments for road right of way, procurement of capital assets, goods and
services, payments thru Automatic Debit Advice (ADA), releases of funds to NGOs
and POs, transfer of funds between government agencies, disbursements from trust
funds of LGUs, and disposal of real property and unserviceable property.
The responsibility to perform pre-audit rests on the head of the auditing
unit or audit team who may either be a Supervising Auditor or an Audit Team
Leader depending on the agency involved.
On the agency officials, on the other hand, rests the responsibility of
ensuring that:
• no transaction is paid without evidence of the pre-audit action;
• all disbursement vouchers, advices, instructions, MOAs, MOUs contracts,
purchase orders, loan agreements, bond flotation / certificates of indebtedness,
appraisal reports and their supporting documents are submitted;
• the auditor is furnished copies of delivery documents within 24 hours after
acceptance of deliveries;
• the agency Annual Procurement Plan ( APP ) and its amendments are submitted
within the first quarter;
• a separate logbook of transactions subject to and submitted for pre-audit is
maintained;
• and to demonstrate proof of pre-audit action undertaken, the disbursement
voucher or disposal contract, supporting documents and other pertinent documents
are marked with a pre-audit stamp.
Another salient character featured is the Oversight Committee. Composed of
the Assistant Commissioners’ Group, its main task is to monitor and periodically
evaluate the implementation of the selective pre-audit. It may apply its
authority and responsibility to recommend the inclusion of certain transaction
or the exclusion from the coverage of pre-audit other transactions previously
included in the coverage of pre-audit. Another big task the Oversight Committee
must accomplish is the development of a mechanism to evaluate agencies’ progress
in the enhancement of their internal control structures, and a process by which
said agencies get to be exempted from, or those previously exempted may be
included in the coverage of selective pre-audit.
