AUDITS (AND TRANSPARENCY) ARE ESSENTIAL ES, THEY ARE
IHAD my first taste of corporate audits a decade ago, when, after almost 11 years of working as a business journalist, I joined the corporate world as a government affairs executive. It was a bit shocking for me, all those system and process improvements that had to be crafted, implemented, and reviewed, plus the stringent internal and external audits that came with the territory.
And then I met the budget preparation and audit process. Again, a shocking experience for me. Imagine having to project the number of paper clips and staple wires (okay, the number of boxes, at least) that your department will use in a year. I am not even exaggerating. That’s aside from the many budget components that you need to flesh out, particularly program budgets that are directly linked to the attainment of yearly functional area and enterprise objectives.
It was shocking for me, as I did not have to go through that exercise as a journalist. Audits for us field reporters meant annual grammar checks (in the Inquirer many, many moons ago, our body of work was reviewed and rated annually by a language guru), editorial gatekeeping and fact-checking, and tallies of our submitted vs. published stories. It was not like the audits that I’ve come to know—and appreciate, imagine that—in the corporate setting.
But what journalists, especially those covering the business beats and the Commission on Audit (COA), do know how to do is read, analyze, and write about data in financial statements and audit reports. Journalists, as members of the so-called Fourth Estate, know how important their role is in ensuring proper spending of hard-earned shareholder and taxpayer money.
In the same vein, agencies like the COA have a mandate to be a watchdog as well—one that safeguards the way government spends its citizen’s money. This is enshrined very clearly in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article IX-D, Section 2.1:
“The Commission on Audit shall have the power, authority, and duty to examine, audit, and settle all accounts pertaining to the revenue and receipts of, and expenditures or uses of funds and property, owned or held in trust by, or pertaining to, the Government, or any of its subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled corporations with original charters, and on a post-audit basis: (a) constitutional bodies, commissions and offices that have been granted fiscal autonomy under this Constitution; (b) autonomous state colleges and universities; (c) other government-owned or controlled corporations and their subsidiaries; and (d) such non-governmental entities receiving subsidy or equity, directly or indirectly, from or through the Government, which are required by law or the granting institution to submit to such audit as a condition of subsidy or equity.”
So when our hardworking COA auditors sift through piles and piles and piles (both electronic and hard copies) of documents from the agencies that they are mandated to audit, they are just doing their job. Like the rest of us, they have a job to do, and they are doing it.
transparency as a mandate
TRANSPARENCY of findings is part of COA’S mandate as well. But this does not just apply to the COA, but the rest of the government bureaucracy. The Department of Budget and Management issued in 2012 National Budget Circular 542, which reiterates Section 93 of the General Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2012, or the Philippine Transparency Seal provision, “to enhance transparency and enforce accountability” among all national government agencies. The seal shows an open clamshell with a bright pearl inside, surrounded by eight rays of a sun, as in the Philippine flag.
The symbolism behind the seal is clearly explained on the DBM web site: “A pearl buried inside a tightly-shut shell is practically worthless. Government information is a pearl, meant to be shared with the public in order to maximize its inherent value.
“The Transparency Seal, depicted by a pearl shining out of an open shell, is a symbol of a policy shift towards openness in access to government information. On the one hand, it hopes to inspire Filipinos in the civil service to be more open to citizen engagement; on the other, to invite the Filipino citizenry to exercise their right to participate in governance.
“This initiative is envisioned as a step in the right direction towards solidifying the position of the Philippines as the Pearl of the Orient—a shining example for democratic virtue in the region.”
COA takes this mandate to heart, not only through the prominent display of the seal, but through the publication of its various audit reports on its web site. Even without issuing any press release, the media— and the rest of the public—can access these audit documents, analyze them, and write about them. Because, like COA auditors, journalists have a job to do. And they are but doing this job when they distill these audit reports into factual narratives that Juan de la Cruz can more easily understand.
In the case of the DOH and the whole issue of causing the public “unnecessary” alarm, as Malacanang put it: that does not seem to be COA’S intent at all. The COA auditors did their job. The journalists did theirs as well. None of this is meant to be political—unless anyone wants to look at it that way.
According to a COA statement: “The Consolidated Annual Audit report for FY 2020 of the Department of Health contains observations and findings made by the Commission on Audit on the utilization of the budget by the DOH. Accompanying the observations and findings are the recommendations made by the auditors for the management of DOH to address the observation and findings. These are part of the audit process, which allows the audited agency to comply with the recommendations and rectify any deficiencies. The report itself does not mention any findings by the auditors of funds lost to corruption.”
At the end of the day, we all have our jobs to do, our roles to fulfill in society. We are all citizens of the Philippines, and I think it is safe to assume that we only want what’s best for the country.
register and vote
SPEAKING of which: the International Public relations Association (IPRA) Philippines, together with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines and Public relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) recently staged a webinar titled “Vox Juventus: Amplifying the Voice of the Youth.” Its main objective was to persuade eligible youth to register and vote in the upcoming National Elections.
Speakers for the webinar were Senior Commissioner rowena Guanzon of the Commission on Elections; riza Mantaring, trustee of the Parish Pastoral Council for responsible Voting (PPCRV); and Mori rodriguez, chief innovation officer of EON The Stakeholder relations Group. They shared their insights on voting as a citizen’s right and responsibility, the youth’s role in securing the country’s future, and the face of the new Filipino voter.
Joining them were young panelists who represent the bright future that we can look forward to as a nation: UP Student regent renee Co, Girl Scouts of the Philippines rep Dorothy rosario, Xavier University Central Student Government President Andre Daba, and Tyempo Naton Movement founder Adrian Camposagrado. They talked about their experiences and thoughts about voter registration, voting, and convincing their peers to take this responsibility and right seriously.
It is never too early for the youth to be involved in the shaping of a country. As Comelec Commissioner Guanzon aptly put it: “For young people, this election is very crucial, because you will choose your leaders that will— like Moses—bring you across the red Sea. Voting in 2022 is one of the best things that you can do for your future.”
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Abigail L. Hotorres is AVP and Head of Advocacy and Marketing of Maynilad Water Services Inc. She spent more than a decade as a business journalist before making the leap to the corporate world.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.