Published: 3 February 2022
Commission on Audit Chairperson Michael G. Aguinaldo, whose term of office ended on 2 February 2022, announced that the Commission on Audit (COA) had approved the regularization of 199 qualified Job Order (JO) workers, both in the Central Office and in the Regional Offices, to permanent employment in the Commission.
Chairperson Aguinaldo emphasized the importance of recognizing the loyalty and service that the qualified JO workers gave to the Commission. “These are qualified JO workers who have contributed, in their own ways, to the successful implementation of our programs and projects. I had promised them when I began my term of office that the Commission would work for their regularization. Thanks to the efforts of the people in the Commission, we are able to give these JO workers the peace of mind of security of tenure and the entitlement to the same benefits as regular employees,” said Chairperson Aguinaldo. He also acknowledged the authority to reorganize granted the Commission in the yearly General Appropriations Act and the support of the Department of Budget and Management and the Civil Service Commission in this undertaking.
Fifty-one out of the 199 JO workers have served the Commission for more than 10 years, 57 have been with COA for more than five years while 91 have worked in COA for less than five years.
The regularization the JO workers was mentioned as one of the accomplishments of the Commission during the tenure of Chairperson Aguinaldo as part of the assessment review. Among the many accomplishments during this time include the construction of Provincial Satellite Auditing Offices (PSAOs) in 50 provinces and a Regional Office in Koronadal, South Cotabato in Region XII, the ongoing construction of PSAOs in 12 more provinces, the construction of the International Training Center in Tagaytay City, the issuance of various manuals and circulars relating to audit including the audit of the COVID-19 expenditures, the establishment of the Performance Audit Office, the achievement of the highest level of the mainstreaming of Gender and Development (GAD) among all government agencies and offices, and the institutionalization of the multi-awarded Citizen Participatory Audit program, which was just recently selected first place for the Asia Pacific Region by the Open Government Partnership (OGP) for its 2021 OGP Impact Awards.
The Commission also embarked on an Audit Modernization Program including the use of artificial intelligence in auditing through the Machine Intelligence, Knowledge-based Audit and Experience Learning tool which detects statistical anomalies and allows the processing of voluminous data; the creation and launch of the Project Reporting of Infrastructure Schedule Monitoring System (PRISM) mobile and web App which allows real-time monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of government infrastructure projects; the issuance of various circulars for the automation and digitization of government processes including the use of electronic documents, electronic signatures, digital signatures, and electronic and digital payments, as well as the automation of the Commission’s information and monitoring systems.
In the international realm, the Commission was the external auditor of the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and continues to be the external auditor of the International Labour Organization. The Commission was elected to the Governing Board of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI), became Chair of the Working Group on Public Debt of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), became Vice-Chair and continued to head the Training Committee of the ASEAN Supreme Audit Institutions (ASEANSAI), and sat as a member of the Board of Editors of the ASOSAI Asian Journal of Government Audit.
Throughout this time, the Commission continued to perform its mandate under the Constitution, conducting annual financial and compliance audits of over 66,045 audit agencies, including 11,816 National Government Agencies and Government-Owned and/or Controlled Corporations and 36,608 Local Government Units, conducting special and fraud audits, rendering reports, and providing training to officials of both the Commission and the auditees, all in keeping with its mission to ensure accountability for public resources, promote transparency, and help improve government operations in partnership with stakeholders, for the benefit of the Filipino people.