Commission on Audit (COA) Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba highlighted the use of technology to improve audit techniques and procedures during the unveiling of COA's 124^th founding anniversary marker at the COA Central Office to signal the start of COA's anniversary celebration with the theme, "COA @ 124: Institusyong Maasahan, Dangal at Tiwala ay Pangalagaan."

Chairperson Cordoba, who is set to receive the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun award from the Japanese government in recognition of his significant contributions to advancing cooperation between Japan and the Philippines in the field of telecommunications, said that he plans to leverage technology to improve audit techniques and procedures such as development of an automated audit system for e-collections and e-payments and using artificial intelligence to crunch big data to determine patterns and detect fraud.

With his experience and expertise in digital technology and telecommunications, Chairperson Cordoba hopes to usher the Commission to new heights through the digital transformation of state audit. "I envision a digital transformation for COA where we contribute to digitizing government transactions including collections in partnership with all government agencies. In the process, we introduce e-audit as the manner of conducting audit," the Chairperson said.

Commission on Audit (COA) Director Adela L. Dondonilla will represent the Philippines as Chair of the 63^rd Session of the United Nations Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC), the main subsidiary organ of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the General Assembly for planning, programming, and coordination in the United Nations.

Ambassador Antonio M. Lagdameo, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations in New York, announced that the Philippines was elected by acclamation as Chairperson of the United Nations CPC during the Committee’s Organizational Session held recently. “The Philippines’ chairmanship is a testament to the country’s ability in taking part in various leadership roles of the organization and its relatable bodies,” Ambassador Lagdameo said. According to the Philippine Mission, “it will also allow the country to oversee and steer the negotiations, which examine holistically the Secretary General’s work programme vis-à-vis its budgetary implications and corresponding mandate for effective implementation.”

Director Dondonilla will assume chairmanship during the Committee’s 63^rd session which will be held at the United Nation’s Headquarters in New York City from 30 May to 30 June 2023. She will be assisted by the officials and staff of the Philippine Mission.

A veteran member of COA’s elite pool of United Nations auditors, Director Dondonilla is currently the director of the Commission’s Cluster 1, Corporate Government Sector handling banking and credits.

The Commission on Audit (COA) moves towards digital transformation of its audit approaches, techniques and processes during the next seven years under the term of Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba.

Around 140 senior COA officials led by Chairperson Cordoba and Commissioners Roland C. Pondoc and Mario G. Lipana formulated the Commission’s strategic directives at a planning conference conducted from 24- 27 April 2023.

To help government agencies improve their services and better perform their mandates, the Commission on Audit (COA) is robustly enhancing its performance audit capabilities. COA Commissioner Roland C. Pondoc recently shed light on COA's performance audit program in his article published in the PICPA Talks column of the Manila Bulletin.

Commissioner Pondoc said that COA coordinated with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States Government Accountability Office (US GAO) Center for Audit Excellence (CAE) in 2015 for technical assistance in the development of performance audit policy and practices aligned with the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI). As a result, five pilot performance audits were conducted.

In 2017, COA created the Performance Audit Office (PAO) dedicated to the conduct of performance audit that is designed to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of a program, with the goal of implementing improvements.