From mid-year releases, the annual audit report (AAR) of government agencies are now uploaded to the Commission on Audit (COA) website from December 1 to 15. They now also come with an update on what the audited agency has done to address findings.
The changes are contained in a COA memorandum issued in July, COA 7 Director Visitacion Mendoza said in an official statement as a response to an email inquiry I sent after I noticed that there were no new reports being uploaded to the COA website in the middle of this year.
In the past, AARs started being uploaded by June with all LGU reports completed by July.
Beginning 2024, however, “the period of publication of the AAR, Agency Action Plan and Status of Implementation (AAPSI) and Action Plan Monitoring Tool (APMT) in the COA Website is from December 1 to 15,” Visitacion said in her letter.
I initially felt that this was just window-dressing for next year’s elections. It gave government agencies more time to act on the findings and present updates on what they are doing to address audit observations at the same time as the AAR publication.
But the new setup is actually better for reporting. The AAPSI and APMT highlight actions done by the agency to address COA findings.
Of course, the AAR already contains management responses during the exit conference but these aren’t as updated as what are in the AAPSI and APMT. The trackers are also so much easier to follow and check.
The agency updates and tracker are contained in a separate folder from the AAR.
Here are some of my previous stories based on COA reports:
Max is a journalist and blogger based in Cebu. He has written and edited for such publications as The Freeman, The Independent Post, Today, Sun.Star Cebu, Cebu Daily News, Philstar Life, and Rappler.
He is also a mobile app and web developer and co-founded InnoPub Media with his wife Marlen.
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