The Commission on Audit (COA) said Tuesday that it was still encountering some issues when it came to hiring personnel to serve as field auditors, as individuals opted for higher pay, flexible working arrangements, and jobs that were within close proximity of their residences.

Assistant Commissioner Lorna Cabochan explained that part of the deficiencies when it came to their workforce traced back to the approval of COA’s Organizational Structure and Staffing Pattern (OSSP) in 2020, which led to a total of 716 positions being cut from the agency.

The position cuts have since been resolved; however, as Cabochan noted, a ruling from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) last July had restored 332 positions in COA–particularly in Region 3 and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Even with the development at hand, the OVP official stated that there was still a considerable shortage of personnel.

Akbayan Partylist Rep. Perci Cendana flagged the information as alarming, given that the proposed budget for 2027 included P107 billion in allocations for flood control projects.

Cendana claimed that the lack of auditors, whom he viewed as a line of defense to prevent a repeat of the flood control scandal wherein trillions of pesos were allegedly lost to corruption.

Another particular matter that the solon found strange was the lack of budget for COA’s capital outlay which was meant to provide the agency with sufficient equipment and infrastructure to allow them to work more effectively.

Even with the lack of budgeting, however, COA Commissioner Douglas Michael Mallillin explained that they were conducting programs to train their personnel to improve their abilities in various fields including data analytics.

Mallillin said that the change was part of the agency’s transition to digital platforms going from its traditional methods.

“This is our way now, because our traditional audit was done through paper. With the present technology that we have and with what we have…we are looking at all of the ways for them to use all applications,” the official said.

“At the same time, we are also looking at agencies that changed their systems,” he said.

A particular system that they were able to adopt through the newfound technology was “geo-tagging.” Mallillin said that the system could be helpful when it came to auditing budgets for infrastructure projects.

He maintained that despite the lack of the budget and personnel, COA was finding a “middle ground” in how it could continuously conduct its audits.

“We have plenty of programs inside COA, what we are focusing on is the knowledge of the people to upskill them. Since we have insufficient personnel and since most of them are leaving, we take a look at technology as a response,” he said.

Mallillin urged Congress to consider providing funding for its capital outlay as it would improve their auditing performance.

Aside from the lack of capital outlay, the government proposed a total budget of P16.046 billion for the auditing agency in 2027.