Duterte ‘fully understands’ COA’s mandate —Guevarra

President Rodrigo Duterte is aware of the Commission on Audit’s (COA) constitutional duty to safeguard public funds, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Friday.

Guevarra issued the statement after Duterte on Monday asked the COA, an independent government body, to stop flagging government agencies while documents are still being processed, saying this could create a perception of corruption.

Malacañang clarified on Thursday that Duterte only asked the COA to stop publishing preliminary reports, not the annual audit reports.

“The President as a lawyer fully understands the mandate of the COA as a constitutional body. I think his chief concern is on the way the COA’s preliminary findings are presented to the public and the impression that it leaves in the mind of the people prior to full compliance by the agency concerned,” Guevarra said.

The Cabinet official emphasized that agencies generally “exert a lot of effort” to comply with numerous auditing rules and regulations, but they are often hampered by the tedious process of collating and submitting supporting documents.

“In fairness to the government agencies concerned, however, they should be given ample opportunity to address and rectify deficiencies noted by the COA before judgment is passed upon their accountability under existing laws,” he said.

"But the matter of determining whether any deficiencies noted in the course of audit constitute a possible violation of law devolves upon other organs of the government."

Duterte’s sentiments about the COA’s work were triggered by the state auditors’ report flagging deficiencies in the Department of Health’s (DOH) utilization of P67.32 billion in COVID-19 funds.

The COA report is currently a subject of separate inquiries by the Senate and House of Representatives.—AOL, GMA News