COA IX conducts webinar on the role of COA in PH government response to COVI-19 

Commission on Audit Regional Office No. IX, Zamboanga City was first among all COA Regional Offices to hold a LIVE WEBINAR on the ROLE OF COA IN THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO COVID-19: EMERGENCY AND POST-EMERGENCY PHASES with Commissioner Roland C. Pondoc last JULY 9, 2020.

Commissioner Pondoc underlined that COA plays a vital role not only in the scrutiny of pandemic response fund to avoid fraud but also in obtaining lessons learned to strengthen future (1) economic recovery efforts (2) financial management and governance systems (3) government preparedness against disasters.

He emphasized that the Commission needs to transition through unique challenges to ensure continued transparency and accountability at both the emergency and post emergency phases of the pandemic, to avoid hampering government’s responses to the pandemic. He further pointed out that during the emergency phase, auditors should keep communicating with key stakeholders and take advantage of digital audit technology to continue audit operations, secure audit trails remotely and initial real time audits. He also stressed that Effective Disbursement Monitoring Arrangement is significant during the post emergency phase to ensure auditee and client preparedness for auditing during the pandemic and that COA audit of procurements must also align with actions taken during the COVID-19 emergency. He then proceeded with the reminder that timeliness of audit reports is also very essential.

Towards the end of his talk, he enumerated the various policy guidelines on the provision of funds for coronavirus response and the corresponding frontline government agencies entrusted with the same. An Open Forum followed thereafter. The webinar had 344 COA IX and three (3) Central Office personnel in attendance.