Pre-audit best way to safeguard people’s money

“SUCH SCANDALOUS spending of the people’s money is preventable in audit. The Commission on Audit (COA) could have stopped it outright in pre-audit, pursuant to its constitutional mandate to prevent and disallow irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant or unconscionable expenditures of government funds.”

As a former state auditor with 18 years of experience in the audit of government transactions, and as a persistent advocate of the pre-audit system, I fully concur with the above-quoted statements of former COA Commissioner Bartolome C. Fernandez Jr., in reference to the extravagant purchases made by the Commission on Elections to furnish its vacation cottages in Baguio (“Comelec does it again,” Inquirer, 8/29/12).

Coming as it does from one of the best and brightest minds in the Commission on Audit (COA), this collegial body is well-advised to revisit its presently instituted post-audit policy. Does it really work effectively in curbing or preventing irregularities in government transactions in support of the “matuwid na daan” governance being aggressively pursued by President Aquino? It may be recalled that former COA chair Reynaldo Villar reinstituted pre-audit in 2009 precisely to curb the rising tide of unabated corruption bedeviling the government bureaucracy. But surprisingly, prior to attaining its target objectives, pre-audit was lifted for the nth time in 2011, to the puzzlement of well-meaning government executives clamoring for a proactive COA.

Let it be noted that under the COA’s post-audit system, the agency accountant who certifies as to the propriety, validity and legality of the disbursement voucher, as well as to the completeness of its supporting documents, covering the procurement of goods, services and infra projects, is also acting as de-facto auditor who performs pre-audit of the same transaction. No need to ask a rocket scientist that this setup defeats the principle of checks and balances. Burdening the agency accountant with such extraneous audit work is deemed counterproductive.

Without any intent of being presumptuous, methinks there really is no substitute for pre-audit in ensuring that disbursements of government funds are proper, valid and legal in all respects, thus enhancing transparency and accountability in the financial affairs of government agencies and instrumentalities. At the end of the day, it is the call of the triumvirate stewards of the COA on whether to stay put with post-audit or reinstitute pre-audit of government transactions.

—SANCHO ‘SONNY’ CACERES,

retired state auditor and

former editor, Ariva Newsletter,

COA Region 4, Quezon City