AS the public continue to learn of how government officials spend taxes, a lawmaker on Wednesday asked auditors' assistance in a possible move to amend the 43-year-old State Audit Code of the Philippines.

Rep. Lawrence Lemuel H. Fortun of Agusan del Norte, a member of the House Committee on Public Accounts, issued a statement following adverse audit findings in the Department of Health's handling of billions of pesos in Covid-19 funds.

"Our State Audit Code is not the legal architecture our country needs for the challenges and demands of this 21st Century," Fortun claims. He noted that the Audit Code was enacted in 1978 and "is long overdue for updating and upgrading."

"Yes, the implementing rules and regulations are adjusted every now and then by the COA [Commission on Audit]. However, spring waters cannot rise higher than its source," the lawmaker said. He added that Presidential Decree 1445 "is the source of that spring from which COA draws its operational powers."

According to Fortun, global accounting and auditing standards have been keeping up with the times and technologies but the country's State Audit Code has not as the PD 1445 is based on accounting and auditing concepts and practices going decades back much further.

"I therefore urge the [COA], the Accounting Standards Council, the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and all the accounting and auditing firms in our country to recommend to Congress draft legislation on necessary and urgent amendments to or overhaul of PD 1445," he said.

Fortun added that Congress "is always relying on the COA's annual audits of government agencies to evaluate their performance be alerted on probable anomalies on the use of public funds."

"This fact is highlighted yet again with the COA findings on discovered deviations from the approved budget of the Department of Health," he said.

"While Congress ascertains the facts and details of the audit findings, I also wish to draw public focus on the need to give COA the powers and means it needs to keep on serving the public interest," he added.

Meanwhile, Assistant Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Representative France L. Castro slammed the administration for multiple observations across agencies of "possible corruption, mishandled and unspent funds and delayed benefits" as millions of Filipinos have been infected, with thousands having died, from Covid-19.

"The [government] has been making all kinds of excuses following the release of COA reports, which flagged almost all corners of the Duterte administration," Castro said. "The COA is a Constitutional body tasked as the supreme auditor of taxpayers' money. They cannot and should not simply stop auditing government agencies just because the president doesn't like it or a department secretary feels wrecked by the observations and findings of COA."

According to Castro, "the findings of the COA only mirror what is happening on the grounds and how the government is spending the people's funds.

"We are still in a pandemic. The economic crisis continues to worsen as more Filipinos are jobless, the healthcare system is once again overflowing with patients as thousands of Filipinos test positive for Covid-19 and many more have no access to hospitals for other illnesses," she added.

The solon said the COA findings are proof that practically "all agencies do not fulfill their mandates and do not serve the people."

"Stop flogging COA for flagging your failed administration," Castro said in statements directed against Malacañan. She further said that the COA "is simply doing its mandate to examine what the government is doing with taxpayers' money."

"Why not emulate COA and do yours?" Castro said.

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