What Ombudsman Samuel Martires tried to prevent from happening to all government agencies was prevented from happening, because of the quick enactment by Congress of “Section 99 of the General Provisions, GAA for fiscal year (FY) 2024 onwards with the requirements of CoA policies,” in deference to the Ombudsman Samuel Martires’s “asking Congress on 13 September 2023 to strike off budget provisions that required the publication of annual audit reports on government agencies.”

On 14 September 2023, in a clarificatory statement, Ombudsman Martires said his request for Congress to strike off publication of annual reports on government agencies is not to protect erring and corrupt government officials and employees.

What Ombudsman Martires was trying to avoid from happening during his time exploded on 12 August 2023 when an audit observation memorandum in the alleged CoA annual audit report on the accounts and financial operations of the Department of Health for the calendar year ending 31 December 2020 was released prematurely to the public on 11 August 2023, igniting a prepared incendiary to incite public condemnation of the alleged anomaly.

More so when Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon issued the following press release: “We should investigate the Department of Health’s handling of Covid-19 funds. The deluge of deficiencies that the CoA findings uncovered are alarming and disturbing.”

“The CoA, in its audit report, said these deficiencies contributed to the challenges encountered and missed opportunities by the DoH during the time of a state calamity/natural emergency, and cast doubt on the regularity of related transactions.”

Quickly, CoA came under fire from President Rodrigo Duterte and administration officials and allies like Health Secretary Francisco Duque III for releasing an audit report that showed deficiencies worth P67.32 billion in the department’s Covid-19 funds.

According to the CoA, the deficiencies caused by non-compliance with pertinent laws and regulations led to missed opportunities during a health crisis.

But in a late-night briefing, Duterte asked CoA to stop flagging agencies and refrain from publishing their reports as it taints agencies with “corruption by perception.”

“Stop that flagging, goddamnit. You make a report, do not flag. Don’t publish it because it will condemn the agency or the person you are flagging,” Duterte said.

Then, in the House panel briefing on CoA’s audit of DoH, Duque lamented how the report provided a damning judgment of the department even if it was not conclusive.

During the same hearing, the current CoA chairperson assured that the commission would continue making and publishing audit reports of government agencies despite the criticism from Duterte and Duque.

But when keen observers looked into the CoA website to search for the annual CoA audit report on the accounts and financial operations of the DoH for the calendar year ending 31 December 2020, what they found was a Consolidated Management Letter, not an audit report, addressed to DoH Secretary Francisco Duque containing the adverse finding on the P67.32 billion deficiencies in the department’s Covid-19 funds with the following recommendation:

“We requested that the Secretary of Health implement the recommendations contained in the Consolidated Management Letter on the audit of Covid-19 funds for the year ended 31 December 2020, and submit a status report on the actions taken on the audit recommendation stated therein.”

This confirmed the report of the DAILY TRIBUNE that what was released by the Commission on Audit on the alleged P67.32 billion DoH Covid-19 fund deficiency was only an audit observation memorandum or AOM and not the CoA final audit report on the accounts and financial operations of the Department of Health for calendar year ending 31 December 2020.

(To be continued)