41-year old State Auditing Code needs “major overhaul”, “badly need updating and upgrading” — solon

The country’s 41-year-old auditing rules need a “major overhaul”, Misamis Oriental Representative Juliette Uy said on Thursday. She describes the auditing rules and procedures as outdated and “badly need updating and upgrading.”

“The State Audit Code we still have now is a presidential decree from way back 1978. In terms of technologies alone, much has changed since then, and so have many financial processes,” said Uy.

Uy wants to call for a “government audit reform summit” to be convened by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council, national government agencies and the COA, to draft a bill for a New State Audit Code of the Philippines.

She cited a number of flaws in the current auditing rules. For instance, Uy wants the government to review the practice of having COA resident auditors hold physical offices within the compound of the agencies they are assigned to audit.

“Either they get corrupted or bullied by agency heads and regular employees. We must protect our honest state auditors,” she said.

Uy added that the law should also be upgraded to recognize the role of technology in honest governance. She noted that the smartphone was not existent in 1978 when the Audit Code was enacted, or in 1987 when it was revised.

Uy recalled that then President Corazon Aquino, wielding revolutionary lawmaking powers, made the last major revision in the State Auditing Code when she issued the Administrative Code of 1987.

Source: “Revision of 41-year-old Philippine gov’t audit rules pushed”, Inquirer.Net