Nancy Binay: Auditing gov’t agencies not part of VP’s job

Auditing government agencies is not part of a vice president’s job, Senator Nancy Binay said Friday.

“Siguro coming from experience as a daughter of a former vice president, di kasama sa powers and functions ng vice president ang mag-audit,” Nancy, daughter of former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay Sr., said in an ANC interview.

(Coming from experience as a daughter of a former vice president, auditing is not part of the powers and functions of a vice president.)

“That power was given specifically to [Commission on Audit]. Kaya kahit vice president na s’ya, I don’t think he can do that na siya mismo ang mago-audit,” she added.

(Even if he becomes a vice president, I don’t think he can do that.)

In a public address Thursday night, President Rodrigo Duterte said he will audit all government agencies if he wins as vice president in the 2022 national elections.

He also asked who is auditing the COA.

On this topic, Binay recalled raising the need for an independent body that will liquidate all the expenses incurred by the COA.

“I also raised the same issue in one of the budget hearings. I asked COA, “who audits you” and apparently they audit themselves. So if I remember it correctly, there were proposals in Congress to create another independent body to probably audit COA because apparently there might be a conflict that they audit themselves,” she said in mixed Filipino and English.

The COA does get audited, and the audit reports on the commission are published on the COA website along with the audit reports on other government agencies.

Former COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza, in an August 18 online forum, explained that there are resident auditors tasked to audit COA officials, who are also at risk of disallowance.

COA system review

Binay said she understands the President’s sentiments, noting her family’s past ordeals when the audit reports were used to prosecute some of her family members.

“Siguro, I can understand where the President is coming from. Alam naman natin ang pinagdaanan ng pamilya ko ‘di ba on how the COA audit was used against us to ruin my family,” she recalled.

(I can understand where the President is coming from. The struggles that my family endured are not a secret to the public specifically how the COA audit was used against us to ruin my family.)

“For me, I think it is high time for all of us to review the system being used by COA kasi mayroon naman talaga silang mga audit findings na hindi na timely. It does not go with the times anymore. I think we know that we are shifting to digital. Hindi pa nila ata alam na nai-incorporate yon,” she added.

(For me, I think it is high time for all of us to review the system being used by COA because there are audit findings that are no longer timely. It does not go with the times anymore. I think we know that we are shifting to digital and they have not incorporated it yet.)

Binay cited as an example the government agencies’ online procurement of airline tickets which she said are not yet considered in the auditing system being followed by the COA.

The senator, who heads the science and technology committee in the Senate, also mentioned the woes in upgrading the laboratories in the country because of the existing COA rules.

“We can’t upgrade laboratories. How can we get three bidders when there is not even a supplier here? You need to procure it abroad. So ‘yung mga ganoon ang kailangan baguhin (Those are the rules that they need to change),” she said.—AOL, GMA News