Politicizing auditing will result in the dismemberment of the Republic of the Philippines into a divided country.
Retired and senior state auditors believe that citizen participatory audit will result in confusion, conflict and chaos.
Enlisting citizens who have no formal training, experience, and proficiency in the analysis of records and official documents will certainly result in a faulty audit, crude reporting, and disorderly release of audit reports.
And worst, allowing citizens with different political affiliations to participate in audits will result in reports with conflicting bias and partisan undertones.
According to reports, the questionable scheme gained momentum in 2013 after the award-winning presentation by Heidi Mendoza of this type of audit in London which was supported and publicized by the then Presidential Communication Office led by Edwin Lacierda.
Almost simultaneously while Heidi Mendoza was performing her award-winning colonial zarzuela to the delight of the remnants of former ‘“conquistadores” of the Philippine archipelago in 1521, Grace Pulido Tan was not faring too well in New York. She lost her bid for a seat on the UN Board of Auditors.
Senior state auditors assert that there is no substitute for auditing by the standards prescribed under Presidential Decree 1445 or the Auditing Code of the Philippines.
Section 54 of the Code states:
1. The audit shall be performed by a person who possesses adequate technical training and proficiency as an auditor.
2. In all matters relating to audit work, the auditor shall maintain complete independence, impartiality, and objectivity, and shall avoid any possible compromise of his independence or any act which may create a presumption of lack of independence or possibility of undue influence in the performance of his duties.
3. The auditor shall exercise due professional care and be guided by applicable laws, regulations, and the generally accepted principles of accounting in the performance of the audit work, as well as in the preparation of audit and financial reports.
The citizen participatory audit is both a simulated audit mechanism and a potent political machinery.
On 27 April 2011, weeks after she was appointed COA commissioner by President Noynoy Aquino, Heidi Mendoza proudly announced in Washington D.C. that “COA is putting into place a mechanism to examine the pork barrel allocations of members of Congress to bring transparency to a process that has been mired in corruption almost from its inception.”
And indeed, as announced by Ms. Mendoza, the effectiveness of the mechanism was applied in the audit of the Priority Development and Assistance Fund.
To the entire world, the international standing of the Philippine Senate, the House of Representatives, the Department of Budget and Management, CoA, and the Republic of the Philippines, suffered a global shame, as evidenced by the CoA Special Audit Report No. 2012-3. The audit was bad enough for being faulty, the audit report was worse for being crude, and its release was worst for being delayed, selective, and biased.
The allegation of Mr. Hyperman of CoA, Commissioner Rolando Pondoc, that the CPA strategy was made possible through CoA’s exclusive authority to establish the methods and teachings for its auditors as mandated by the Philippine constitution, was foul and would not hold water, because it was repugnant to the provisions of PD 1445 or the Auditing Code of the Philippines, particularly Section 54 thereof.
The citizen participatory audit, Philippine style, was discreetly installed by Heidi Mendoza both as a simulated audit machinery and a potent political machinery in preparation for her Senate run in 2022.
It must be recalled that on 12 October 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of South Korea recruited Heidi Mendoza to the United Nations to serve as Undersecretary General for the Office of the International Oversight Services for five years. Mendoza upon assumption swore that after five years at the UN, she would return to the Philippines and run for senator.
(To be continued)