Auditors gird for digital shield (1)

Barely five months after the 2023 strategic conference of the Commission on Audit in Pampanga, the rank and file, or workforce, of the audit institution disclosed the need for a digital approach to protect state funds and property against unnecessary, extravagant, irregular, and unconscionable utilization, in violation of law, accounting and auditing rules and regulations, and Presidential Decree No. 1445, or the Auditing Code of the Philippines.

These disclosures are contained in the annual audit reports of the resident auditors as of the calendar year ending 31 December 2022, in all agencies of government located in 16 regions of the country, (including Region IV-A and IV-B; CoA Cordillera in the farthest North; and CoA Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in farthest South of the country).

The resident auditors submitted their adverse findings and recommendations to the cluster directors for appropriate action as discussed in the CoA strategic planning in Pampanga.

Acting as a collegial body, the Commission on Audit or CoA, led by Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba, revealed the 10-point agenda for the transformation of state audit for the next seven years, during the CoA Strategic Planning Conference 2023, 24-27 April 2023, Hilton Clark Sun Valley Resort, Clark Freeport, Pampanga.

Let us repeat, without being redundant, the basic but most fundamental contents of the 10-point agenda for the digital transformation of state audit in the Philippines.

According to Chairman Cordoba, these strategic thrusts focus on developing an easy-to-implement and technology-driven government accounting system compliant with international standards; introducing e-audit as the manner of conducting audits through digitizing government transactions, including collections in partnership with all government agencies; leveraging technology to improve the audit system for e-collections and e-payments; and the use of artificial intelligence to crunch big data to determine patterns and detect fraud.

The strategic thrusts of Chairman Cordoba were inspired by the call of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to embrace digitalization and adopt technological innovations to make the country more competitive.

Included in the chairman's 10-point agenda are aligning existing rules and regulations with the changing times and conditions; prescribing rules and regulations to cover gaps and emerging issues and updating audit guidelines for e-payments to cover contracts entered into via social media platforms. Training both the auditors and agency personnel in financial transactions on the up-to-date accounting and auditing rules and filling around 5,000-plus vacant positions in the commission are very important.

Included on the agenda is the development of a proactive system to address the disposition of backlogs of appealed cases.

CoA is now moving into modernizing audit through leveraging technology, which will be able to take a step further, enabling a technology-driven accounting system, digitizing government transactions in partnership with all government agencies, and paving the way for e-audit in the manner of conducting an audit.

Commissioner Mario Lipana, on the other hand, said inputs in the strategic planning conference will become the foundation that will guide the CoA to be among the top-performing supreme audit institutions.

Commissioner Roland Pondoc emphasized the importance of nurturing future leaders of the commission, encouraging CoA officials to wholeheartedly embrace their roles as leaders of the organization and recognize that the growth, direction, and future of the institution highly depend on the development of potential leaders within the organization. (To be continued)