May Angelica R.

Manzano Operations Management

COMMISSION ON AUDIT (COA)

Introduction
Auditing has been proven as an effective tool for good governance. As such,
COA is established to provide auditing services for the government. COA is an
independent constitutional commission established by the 1987 Philippine
Constitution under Article IX-D. It is a government agency that has the primary
function to examine, audit and settle all accounts and expenditures of the funds and
properties of the Philippine government.
The Commission has the goal to become a vibrant partner in nation-building,
a haven of integrity and competence, an organization of professionals with culture
of excellence where good work is treasured as the reward in itself, a quality
member in the international organizations of supreme audit institutions. And in
order to attain this goal, its three basic functions must interact with each other.
How? Let me discuss each functions and how they work together:

The Operations Function

We serve as external auditor of all government units. We add value to the
government by promoting good governance and thereby, providing assurance to
the Filipino people that the government funds are properly used by these
government units.
As auditors, we have the power, authority, and duty to examine, audit, and
settle all accounts pertaining to government funds. We perform post audit of
disbursement vouchers and official receipts, review of financial reports, inspection
of infrastructure projects, recommend measures to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of government operations, promulgate accounting and auditing rules
in order to avoid any irregularity in the use of government funds and properties,
answer to inquiries or referrals of our auditee, and other activities as deemed
necessary for the examination of government funds.
At year end, we prepare annual audit reports to provide assertion on the fair
presentation of the financial statement of the government. In this report, the
citizens of the Philippines will be able to know how the government funds have
been utilized by the government agencies all over the country.

The Finance Function

Since COA is a government agency, our funds come from taxes paid by the
Filipino people. The Finance Sector prepares the budgetary requirement for a given
year by consolidating the Annual Procurement Plan (APP) prepared by the
Regional Offices. And then, this budget is submitted to the Congress for approval.
Upon approval, the Department of Budget and Management release these funds to
the Commission by issuing Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA). The Commission
Proper will now then release the funds through sub-allotment advice to each
Regional Offices for proper utilization. The funds allocated should be properly
utilized according to the APP prepared, otherwise, the expenditure is considered
unauthorized and will be disallowed. Unless there is re-alignment of funds
prepared before using it to other purposes. Any excess or unutilized funds of the
organization will be automatically reverted to the National Treasury.

The Marketing Function

COA is a service-oriented organization that provides auditing services to
government. Providing the government agencies with world-class audit services is
in itself the marketing strategy of the Commission. We promote the peoples trust
in the government by upholding public accountability. We review their financial
reports and make recommendations on how to improve it. We help in enhancing
the accounting process of the government agencies in order to avoid any
irregularity in its transactions. We plan our audit technique depending on how
many and how complex the transactions of the government agencies we are
handling. So that in the end, we can add value to the government by promoting
good governance.

Conclusion
In order for the Commission to attain its goal, the three basic functions,
together with other supporting functions, must work hand in hand. Each one of
them gives important contribution in the achievement of the organizations goal.
For instance, the Commission can only provide world-class audit services if the
Finance Sector can provide for funds needed to send the auditors to trainings and
seminars which will enhance our knowledge and skills. Similarly, the marketing
and operations as well as administrative function must work together in order to
plan the extent, nature and timing of our audit. The marketing function provides
information on how many government agencies are we going to serve and the
complexity of its transactions so that the administrative function will be able to
know how many auditors will be assigned in a particular agency. In turn, the
auditors will make use of this information to plan the audit techniques we are
going to apply.
The success of the Commission in attaining its goal does not depend on how
well each sector operates but on how harmonious they work together as one. If one
of the functions fails to cooperate with the other, the entire organization will
collapse and its goal will not be attained.