Published: 13 July 2023
The Commission on Audit (COA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) extended for another two years the Philippine Performance Audit Partnership project (PPAP), benefitting from the momentum towards sustainability of performance auditing in the Commission.
COA, USAID and the United States Government Accountability Office – Center for Audit Excellence (US GAO-CAE) entered into a memorandum of understanding in 2019 for the provision of technical assistance to further enhance COA’s performance audit capacity in evaluating high-value government programs to ensure that they are efficient, economical and achieve their objectives.
Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba together with Commissioners Roland C. Pondoc and Mario G. Lipana and Assistant Commissioner Alexander B. Juliano present tokens of appreciation to the United States Agency for International Development’s Regional Controller Bret Campbell (1st from left), Team Leader Mohamed Dansoko (2nd from left), Mission Director Ryan Washburn (4th from left) and Chief Financial Officer Reginald Mitchel (3rd from right) during the launch of the Philippine Performance Audit Partnership project extension at the CP Boardroom.
COA Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba with Commissioners Roland C. Pondoc and Mario G. Lipana, Assistant Commissioners Alexander B. Juliano and Winnie Rose H. Encallado (Project Manager and Assistant Project Manager of the PPAP, respectively) and USAID’s Mission Director Ryan Washburn led the launch of the PPAP extension at the Commission Proper Boardroom recently.
Also present at the event were Performance Audit Office Directors Michael L. Racelis and Dondon P. Marcos, Project Manangement Office Director Marites A. Odtojan, USAID’s Chief Financial Officer Reginald Mitchell, Team Leader Mohamed Dansoko and Regional Controller Bret Campbell.
Chairperson Cordoba expressed gratitude to the USAID and the US GAO-CAE for being invaluable partners in the Commission’s performance audit initiatives. He recognized the expertise and experience of US GAO- CAE consultants and acknowledged that the Commission still needs further guidance from experts in this field.
Meanwhile, Mr. Washburn said that he was impressed with the long history of the USAID partnership and Mr. Mitchell expressed hope that the next two years of the partnership will produce more impressive results.
Through the partnership, the US GAO-CAE has conducted 15 training courses and two executive briefings to capacitate COA auditors and guide them in the conduct of performance audits. Aside from the basic performance audit course, trainings also focused on areas such as research design, social sciences methods, and evaluation and investigation techniques for performance auditing.
Since 2017, the Commission released 14 Performance Audit Reports on government programs such as the COVID 19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) Program, National Health Insurance Program, and National Greening Program. #