With the ongoing need for relief goods and resources for the thousands of Filipinos still recovering from typhoon ‘Ondoy’ and the unfavorable weather that lingered afterwards, the national budget and the spending activities involved are placed under the limelight again. Eastern Samar Rep. Teodulo Coquilla (also a member of the Appropriations Committee), called on the Commission on Audit (COA) to monitor all the calamity and intelligence funds used by local government units (LGUs) all over the country during the hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations on COA’s proposed P4.066-billion budget for 2010. This is in response to the noise made by several sectors asking about how the P100 million-calamity fund, which was still intact in February this year, was used up by the local government.

In hindsight, this strong call for budget auditing could also be rooted to the recent controversy regarding the allegations against President Arroyo’s consumption of the government’s P800-million contingency fund for her frequent and lavish foreign trips. As revealed by Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III in August this year during a radio interview with dzMM, he said that the president “exhausted not only Malacañang’s travel funds but also the P800-million appropriation for emergencies in the 2008 national budget.” He said that this information is based on a COA report submitted to Speaker Prospero Nograles. Guingona said the COA findings show that the 2008 contingency fund was insufficient for foreign travels and Mrs. Arroyo had to augment it by P120 million.

Finger-pointing about the misuse and improper allocation of budget and resources is not entirely new within the political circle, but with relief goods and rehabilitation operations in high demand due to the recent typhoons, every centavo spent suspiciously can be subjected to scrutiny.

References:

• http://positivenewsmedia.net/am2/publish/Main_News_1/Solon_wants_COA_to_audit_calamity_intelligence_funds.shtml

• http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=496123

* * * * * * * * * *

Entrepreneurs Accounting Academy offers a seminar on Operations Auditing, which demonstrates the process of identifying document organizational strengths and weaknesses and the improvements needed to be put into action. It deals with the development of auditing programs that meet the operational, financial and planning objectives set by management and finally enables participants to practice new behavioral skills and communication techniques. This course caters to operations auditors or process analysts, internal auditors and also non-auditors with responsibility for developing and monitoring internal control or understanding business processes.