House panel open to study Martires' call to stop COA audit report publication

The House committee on appropriations expressed openness Friday to study the call of Ombudsman Samuel Martires for the non-publication of the Commission on Audit’s (COA) annual audit report on government agencies and local government units.

“The Committee on Appropriations is open to studying the suggestion of the Honorable Ombudsman Samuel Martires and will carefully evaluate the impact and implications of such action,” panel chairperson Elizaldy Co said in a statement.

“I understand the concern about preventing premature judgments and confusion among the public when reading audit reports. The impact of such publications on government officials' reputations is an important consideration,” he added.

Martires, during the House hearing on the Ombudsman’s proposed P4.98 billion budget for 2024, suggested that Congress should remove a provision of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) referring to the publication of COA’s annual audit report.

Section 97 of the 2022 GAA’s General Provisions, however, only tasks agencies to respond to COA’s AAR within a reasonable amount of time and mandates agencies to publish such responses on their respective websites.

It reads: “Within sixty days from receipt of the COA Annual Audit Report, agencies concerned shall submit to the COA, either in printed form or by way of electronic document, a status report on the actions taken on said audit findings and recommendations using the prescribed form under COA Memorandum No. 2014-002 dated March 18, 2014.”

The same section adds, “They shall likewise furnish the DBM (Department of Budget and Management), the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate of the Philippines, the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance, either in printed form or by way of electronic document, a copy of said reports.”

It further reads: “The head of agency concerned and the agency's web administrator or his/her equivalent should be responsible for ensuring that said status reports are posted on the agency's website.”

Martires said that since COA audit findings are appealable, the public would suspect the Ombudsman of being corrupt if the anti-graft body will not file a case based on audit findings which are belatedly settled by the concerned agency.—AOL, GMA Integrated News