COA chair Tan vows independence from PNoy; may audit pork use in 2010 onwards

Commission on Audit chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan on Friday stressed her independence from President Benigno Aquino III, who tapped her to lead the audit agency and who's also the appointing authority of Supreme Court justices.

 

Tan made the remark during her interview with the Judicial and Bar Council, which is currently screening nominees for the vacant SC seat recently left by the retired Associate Justice Roberto Abad.

 

"Since Day One, the COA has been the independent constitutional commission that it was meant to be. From the very beginning to this day, the President has not been given any special treatment by the Commission on Audit," Tan told the JBC.

 

"We audit the Office of the President (and) the presidential staff in the same way we audit (other government offices and officials)," she added.

 

Tan later told reporters that the COA may expand its special audit of priority development assistance fund to include its use beyond 2009 and under the Aquino administration.

 

The agency last year released a special audit report on the use of the pork barrel scam during the latter years of the Arroyo administration from 2007 to 2009. 

 

This special audit laid the foundation for the filing of plunder and corruption charges against three senators and dozens of others in connection with the pork barrel scam.

 

But with the emergence of alleged mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles' extended and complete "tell-all" affidavit, Tan opened up the possibility of another special audit report.

 

"Remember our PDAF report is 2007 to 2009. Ngayon kung meron siyang binabanggit doon na 2010 and above ma-che-check din namin iyon kasi may mga audits din naman kami from 2010 to the present on PDAF," Tan said after she her interview by the JBC.

 

Tan said the COA might have to "validate" new information from Napoles' tell-all testimony with the agency's own audit records.

 

Currently, the Inter-Agency Graft Coordinating Council is conducting its own investigation on the pork barrel scam at a much wider scope, extending outside the 2007 to 2009 coverage of COA's earlier special audit.

 

Tan said she does not see the need for the COA to be furnished copies of whistleblower Benhur Luy's digital files on the fund mess. 

 

"Since the cases are with the Ombudsman and with the DOJ, I think its’ better na nasa kanila iyon," Tan said.

 

The DOJ and the NBI had recently furnished the Ombudsman copies of Luy's files, which would number to more than 30,000 pages if printed.

 

As for the PDAF use earlier than 2007, Tan admitted the COA would have a difficulty investigating it since the agency does not have audit reports of that "scale and magnitude" during those years.

 

"(Pero) baka meron yun (supporting documents) lurking somewhere," Tan added.

 

Though being considered an "outsider" or not coming from within the judiciary, Tan considers her being a certified public accountant as an advantage in her bid for a seat in the SC.

 

Despite having no experience in the judiciary before, Tan said she had practiced "adjudicatory" functions as a former undersecretary of the Department of Finance. 

 

"When I was in DOF, lahat po ng decisions ng Bureau of Customs, ina-apeal po yan sa DOF… so I had to decide," she said. —NB, GMA News