"The fruits of your labor will bear the fruits of your success." - John Jones

The Commission on Audit (COA) is now reaping the benefits of its hard work and commitment to Gender and Development (GAD) as COA has been officially declared as a Bronze awardee for the GADtimpala 2018 conferred by the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) in recognition of its significant contributions to gender equality and women empowerment especially by ensuring the judicious use GAD funds in the bureaucracy through the implementation of the GAD budget policy.

COA received the prestigious award at the GADtimpala awarding ceremonies on 14 August 2019 during the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Magna Carta of Women held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Manila.

COA is the only government agency which has reached Level 4 of the Gender Mainstreaming Evaluation Framework (GMEF) per PCW’s evaluation and monitoring of performance since CY 2016 with an average score of 81.23 and 84.11 in CY 2017. COA has yet to receive from PCW the score for CY 2018 which became the basis for the Bronze Award.

GADtimpala stands for Gender and Development Transformation and Institutionalization through Mainstreaming of Programs, Agenda, Linkages, and Advocacies. The 2018 GADtimpala awards gave due recognition to deserving national government agencies for their outstanding achievement and performance in mainstreaming gender in the bureaucracy, upholding the rights of women and effective implementation of gender-responsive programs.

COA’s Gender Audit Guidelines is a landmark policy which prescribes the conduct of audit of GAD funds in all government agencies, including local government units (LGUs). Results of GAD audit are incorporated in COA’s annual audit reports. The national and corporate sectoral consolidations of audit observations and recommendations are forwarded to the PCW while those for the local sector are forwarded to the DILG. These will serve as guide of these sectors in their respective GAD planning. The reports help track all national government agencies, LGUs, and government-owned and controlled corporations that are compliant and non-compliant with the GAD Budget Policy. COA also engages in strategic partnership and linkages with other government agencies, development partners, civil society organizations and other stakeholders to strengthen its role in the audit of GAD funds. Moreover, COA provides client-focused and organization-focused programs, activities and projects that further deepen the level of gender mainstreaming, i.e., capacity building on GAD planning and budgeting, and auditing; day care operations and other personnel welfare concerns, etc.

Likewise, COA ensures effective implementation of gender-responsive programs that create a formidable voice of its women and men employees working together in upholding the rights of women and men towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. Apart from the GAD Focal Point System, COA has other functional mechanisms that support the delivery of gender-responsive services to its employees. Among which are the Committee on Decorum and Investigation (CODI) that helps prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, and the Women Help Desk.