For a few days, the Commission on Audit has been placed under a Commission Proper that has been improperly improvised by newly appointed CoA chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordova. The new chairperson designated an Assistant Commissioner to serve as Commission Proper, purportedly in the absence of all three commissioners.
A senior CoA central office auditor who sounded sad and betrayed, said "We are at it all over again. All our three incumbent commissioners have left the country."
What the informant meant was that he felt as if CoA was in the same situation again as before, during the time of Grace Pulido Tan and Heidi Mendoza. The two were frequently out of the country.
All three incumbent CoA commissioners were out of the country. Commissioners Roland C. Pondoc and Mario G. Lipana went abroad to conduct an embassy audit in two European countries. Newly appointed CoA chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba is reportedly on a foreign special mission.
Before leaving, he reportedly designated a certain Assistant Commissioner "to act as Commission Proper, purportedly in the absence of the three commissioners."
A senior CoA central office old-timer was quick to comment, "this is a betrayal of public trust, at this time when his appointment as CoA chairman would still be subject to the confirmation by the bicameral Commission on Appointments."
Another central office senior auditor expressed loneliness. We are probably back to the darkest page of our history as a nation as far as government auditing is concerned because our commissioners do not seem to care about doing auditing work.
There would be no hope of resolving the huge backlogs left by the previous Commission Proper. Worse, the new CoA chairperson has no government accounting and auditing experience. He did not come from our ranks.
Still another central office employee, who is almost about to retire, said CoA is back to its reputation as an adjunct of the Department of Tourism, referring to the time of former CoA chairperson Grace Pulido Tan and Heidi Mendoza when the tandem was frequently on "tour."
Pulido Tan failed to focus on her constitutional duties and responsibilities because she had been out of the country so many times. She traveled 33 times, five times in 2010 and 28 times after her assumption as chairman of CoA.
Ironically, CoA has a huge audit backlog, despite its superior personnel profile. The audit institution is manned by the most number of certified public accountants, lawyers, master's and doctorate holders, engineers, and commerce graduates, majoring in accounting and specialists in various fields of discipline. But they are not being harnessed and managed to the best advantage and interest of our country and people, simply because the chairman and commissioners who are appointed by the President to lead them are disoriented on government accounting and auditing, and worst, as it did happen, even ignorant of the Constitutional duty of CoA.
Chairperson Cordoba, like chairperson Pulido Tan, most likely will also travel frequently. He is reportedly very strong and influential in the Palace among the politicians.
The frequent travel of the CoA chairperson in the past resulted in the designation of officers-in-charge who were non-commissioners and created the impression that the CoA is functioning as a collegial body. In the chairperson's absence, he allowed the convening of the mini-commission proper composed of chiefs-of-staff of commissioners and other CoA senior officials.
The BBM die-hards, who worked hard to give President Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. 31-million majority votes in the last elections, will not allow the situation of CoA under then-chairpersons Pulido Tan and Mendoza, to ever happen again.
The new CoA chief, nonetheless, will have to pass through the hole of the needle — the Senate Commission on Appointments.