CSO Engagement in Public Audit (PH0033)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Philippines National Action Plan 2015-2017
Action Plan Cycle: 2015
Status: Inactive
Institutions
Lead Institution: Commission on Audit
Support Institution(s): Audit clients, i.e. National, Local and Corporate government offices and Department of Budget and Management. Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP)
Policy Areas
Anti-Corruption, Audits, Social AccountabilityIRM Review
IRM Report: Philippines End-of-Term Report 2015-2017, Philippines Mid-Term Progress Report 2015-2017
Starred: No
Early Results:
Major
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Public Accountability
Implementation i
Description
A weak public finance management system leads to the inefficient and ineffective use of public funds. This results to unresponsive government projects that constrain the achievement of national development goals and outcomes. The main objective of CPA is to strengthen and sustain the engagement of citizens and COA in participatory audits. The Phase II of the CPA program intends to scale-up the implementation of CPA nationwide. This will be done through the roll out of participatory audit of farm-to-market roads in all regions of the country and institutionalization of this process. Relevance - Transparency – by including citizens as part of the public audit process, COA systems and processes are made transparent by giving citizen partners the same access to documents as state auditors. Audit reports are also widely disseminated through the COA website (www.coa.gov.ph) and the i-kwenta website (www.i- kwenta.com).
Accountability – Putting in place the CPA Operational Guidelines provides a clear accountability system for both COA and its citizen partners. As part of the horizontal accountability system, COA (and its citizen partners) can check abuses by other public institutions and branches of government, particularly in determining whether public funds have been efficiently allocated and properly expended.
Participation – Under CPA, several avenues for citizen participation are introduced. Oftentimes, citizen partners have the ability to influence the tools used during data gathering activities. During the audit report writing, both COA and its citizen partners work on it together, thereby ensuring that the recommendations identified in the audit report include those of the citizens and state auditors.
Technology and Innovation - The Public Information System ensures that feedback from the public is received by COA. Ambition - By institutionalizing CPA in COA, citizen voice in government oversight systems will be magnified. It is expected that government agencies will take heed and provide the appropriate responses to enhance their own systems and processes. Eventually, the desired outcome would be a better public finance management system that ensures the efficient allocation and expenditure of public funds based on projects that are responsive to the needs and priorities of the people.
IRM Midterm Status Summary
For Commitment details, see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/philippines-mid-term-progress-report-2015-2017.
IRM End of Term Status Summary
5. CSO engagement in public audit
Commitment Text:
A weak public finance management system leads to the inefficient and ineffective use of public funds. This results to unresponsive government projects that constrain the achievement of national development goals and outcomes. The main objective of CPA is to strengthen and sustain the engagement of citizens and COA in participatory audits. The Phase II of the CPA program intends to scale-up the implementation of CPA nationwide. This will be done through the rollout of participatory audit of farm-to-market roads in all regions of the country and institutionalization of this process.
Relevance:
· Transparency – by including citizens as part of the public audit process, COA systems and processes are made transparent by giving citizen partners the same access to documents as state auditors. Audit reports are also widely disseminated through the COA website (www.coa.gov.ph) and the i-kwenta website (www.i- kwenta.com).
· Accountability – Putting in place the CPA Operational Guidelines provides a clear accountability system for both COA and its citizen partners. As part of the horizontal accountability system, COA (and its citizen partners) can check abuses by other public institutions and branches of government, particularly in determining whether public funds have been efficiently allocated and properly expended.
· Participation – Under CPA, several avenues for citizen participation are introduced. Oftentimes, citizen partners have the ability to influence the tools used during data gathering activities. During the audit report writing, both COA and its citizen partners work on it together, thereby ensuring that the recommendations identified in the audit report include those of the citizens and state auditors.
· Technology and Innovation - The Public Information System ensures that feedback from the public is received by COA.
· Ambition - By institutionalizing CPA in COA, citizen voice in government oversight systems will be magnified. It is expected that government agencies will take heed and provide the appropriate responses to enhance their own systems and processes. Eventually, the desired outcome would be a better public finance management system that ensures the efficient allocation and expenditure of public funds based on projects that are responsive to the needs and priorities of the people.
Responsible institution: Commission on Audit
Supporting institution(s): Audit clients, i.e. National, Local and Corporate government offices and Department of Budget and Management. Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP)
Start date: 1 January 2015
End date: 31 December 2017
Commitment Aim
This commitment aimed to strengthen the Citizen Participation Audit (CPA) project and institutionalize citizen participation in public audit to support the Commission on Audit (COA), the constitutionally-mandated auditing body. Building and strengthening CPA has been a commitment in the Philippine national action plan from the beginning. The effort has won an OGP award. In the third action plan, the deliverables intended to sustain and expand CPA through the passage of policies to adopt and support CPA, conducting of CPA activities, and capacity building and mobilization of CSO citizen auditors.
Status
Midterm: Substantial
By the midterm, substantial progress had been made toward completing this commitment. COA has undertaken numerous capacity building activities related to strengthening CPA. COA had published two CPA reports and another 15 reports were being finalized. From June 2015 to August 2016, nine CSOs were trained and deployed as citizen auditors. With regards to sustainability and scaling up efforts, CPA was given a regular budget under the General Appropriations Act and expanded coverage of government offices that it audited (e.g. CPA of solid waste management covering all cities and municipality of Metro Manila).[Note: Thank you to new/ additional information provided by COA in commenting on earlier draft of the Progress Report.] The only deliverable pending completion was the adoption of CPA policies.
End of term: Complete
All the deliverables of this commitment have been completed. The finable deliverables pending have now been completed including the inclusion of CPA in the Strategic Plan of COA from 2016-2022 and the drafting of CPA Strategy and Audit Technique[Note: PH-OGP. End of Term Self-Assessment Report. October 2017.] institutionalize and operationalize CPA. According to the end-of-term self-assessment report, positive progress has been made on the number of CPA activities, capacity building activities, CPA reports published, and CSO monitors trained and mobilized.[Note: Ibid.] CPA reports are accessible online through the COA website.[Note: Commision of Audit, Citizens Participation Reports https://www.coa.gov.ph/index.php/reports/citizen-participatory-audit-reports.]
Did It Open Government?
Public Accountability: Major
CPA has supported COA to perform its mandate of ensuring accountability for public resources, promoting transparency, and helping to improve government operations. Public auditing in the Philippines has been challenged by insufficient resources (there are approximately 7,000 state auditors expected to audit 61,000 government agencies)[Note: Citizen Participatory Audit in the Philippines. http://iniciativatpa.org/2012/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/CPA-case-study.pdf. ] and a lack of concrete support from the public, which would sharpen the impact of its audit findings and recommendations. CPA has become a platform for citizens to participate and become deputized as public auditors, thereby acting as a force-multiplier in the audit process. The direct involvement of citizens has led to positive gains: it checks whether projects are beneficial to citizens and those being audited have been found to be more receptive of audit recommendations when citizens are part of the audit team.[Note: Commission on Audit. Written Response to IRM Questionnaire. ] Furthermore, the COA has noticed that auditees have implemented recommendations faster, sometimes even before the receipt of the final audit reports.[Note: Commission on Audit. Written Response to IRM Questionnaire.]
ANSA-EAP has also underscored the conclusion that involving citizens has made agencies are more open to audits and more likely to implement changes based on audit findings. This has subsequently prompted a timelier response from the government.[Note: ANSA-EASP comment on the earlier draft of the Progress Report.] Finally, the CPA reports are an additional source of information for the public, especially those interested in government performance. While the impact of audit reports on agencies’ performance, and in deterring corruption or inefficiencies, has yet to be studied systematically, this commitment has provided new opportunities for CSOs to participate in the audit process and has served as a mechanism to generate a response from those being audited.
Carried Forward?
The commitment has been carried forward in the national action plan. Its focus is to improve the CPA policies based on experience, conduct CPA dialogues with the data gathered to be used as inputs in the COA’s strategic planning, plan audit activities, and evaluate agency implementation of audit recommendations.
Commitments
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Citizen Participation in Local Government
PH0056, 2019, Capacity Building
-
Participation in Local Tourism Development
PH0057, 2019, Capacity Building
-
Basic Education Inputs Program
PH0058, 2019, Capacity Building
-
Open Data Portal
PH0059, 2019, Access to Information
-
Participatory Monitoring of Infrastructure Projects
PH0060, 2019, Capacity Building
-
Implement EITI
PH0061, 2019, Access to Information
-
Passage of Freedom of Information Law
PH0062, 2019, Access to Information
-
Labor Inclusivity and Dispute Resolution
PH0063, 2019, Access to Justice
-
Participatory Children's Health and Nutrition Program
PH0064, 2019, Gender
-
Indigenous Representation in Local Legislative Councils
PH0065, 2019, E-Government
-
Open Contracting Data Publication
PH0066, 2019, Access to Information
-
Civil Society Participation to Improve LGU Service Delivery
PH0042, 2017, Access to Information
-
Engage Communities in the Fight Against Corruption, Criminality and Illegal Drugs
PH0043, 2017, Capacity Building
-
Ease of Doing Business:Competitiveness
PH0044, 2017, Legislation & Regulation
-
Ease of Doing Business: Philippines’ Anti-Red Tape Challenge)
PH0045, 2017, Capacity Building
-
Citizen Participatory Audit)
PH0046, 2017, Anti-Corruption
-
8888 Citizens’ Complaint Center
PH0047, 2017, Public Participation
-
Government Feedback Mechanism
PH0048, 2017, Capacity Building
-
Access to Information Legislation
PH0049, 2017, Access to Information
-
e-Participation Through the National Government Portal
PH0050, 2017, Access to Information
-
Open Budget Index and Budget Reform Bill
PH0051, 2017, Access to Information
-
Philippine Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
PH0052, 2017, Anti-Corruption
-
Institutional Mechanisms for Disaster Response
PH0053, 2017, Access to Information
-
Shelter Development for Informal Settler Families
PH0054, 2017, Access to Information
-
Open Local Legislative Processes
PH0055, 2017, E-Government
-
Law on ATI
PH0029, 2015, Access to Information
-
Transparency of Local Govs Plans and Budgets
PH0030, 2015, Fiscal Openness
-
Open Data
PH0031, 2015, Access to Information
-
Extractive Industries' Transparency
PH0032, 2015, Anti-Corruption
-
CSO Engagement in Public Audit
PH0033, 2015, Anti-Corruption
-
Civic Enagement in Local Budget Planning
PH0034, 2015, Fiscal Openness
-
Civic Enagement in Local Budget Planning – Community Capacity-Building
PH0035, 2015, Capacity Building
-
Improving Public Service Delivery
PH0036, 2015, Public Participation
-
Improving Local Govs' Performance
PH0037, 2015, Capacity Building
-
Improve the Ease of Doing Business
PH0038, 2015, Private Sector
-
Local Government Competitiveness
PH0039, 2015, Access to Information
-
Public and Private Sector Dialogue
PH0040, 2015, Private Sector
-
Improving Corporate Accountability
PH0041, 2015, Private Sector
-
Sustain Transparency in National Government Plans and Budgets
PH0020, 2013, E-Government
-
Support for the Passage of Legislations on Access to Information and Protection of Whistleblowers
PH0021, 2013, Access to Information
-
Engage Civil Society in Public Audit
PH0022, 2013, Anti-Corruption
-
Enhance Performance Benchmarks for Local Governance
PH0023, 2013, Capacity Building
-
Enhance the Government Procurement System
PH0024, 2013, Anti-Corruption
-
Strengthen Grassroots Participation in Local Planning and Budgeting
PH0025, 2013, Fiscal Openness
-
Provide More Accessible Government Data in a Single Portal and Open Format
PH0026, 2013, Access to Information
-
Initiate Fiscal Transparency in the Extractive Industry
PH0027, 2013, Anti-Corruption
-
Improve the Ease of Doing Business
PH0028, 2013, Private Sector
-
Disclose Executive Budgets
PH0001, 2011, Fiscal Openness
-
Access to Information Initiative
PH0002, 2011, Access to Information
-
Broader CSO Engagement
PH0003, 2011, Public Participation
-
Participatory Budget Roadmap
PH0004, 2011, Fiscal Openness
-
Local Poverty Reduction
PH0005, 2011, Public Participation
-
Empowerment Fund
PH0006, 2011, Capacity Building
-
Social Audit
PH0007, 2011, Anti-Corruption
-
Results-Based Performance
PH0008, 2011, Capacity Building
-
Performance-Based Budgeting
PH0009, 2011, Capacity Building
-
Citizen’S Charters
PH0010, 2011, Capacity Building
-
Internal Audit
PH0011, 2011, Anti-Corruption
-
Single Portal for Information
PH0012, 2011, Access to Information
-
Integrated Financial Management System
PH0013, 2011, E-Government
-
Electronic Bidding
PH0014, 2011, Anti-Corruption
-
Procurement Cards
PH0015, 2011, Anti-Corruption
-
Manpower Information System
PH0016, 2011, E-Government
-
Expand the National Household Targeting System (NHTS)
PH0017, 2011, Public Participation
-
e-TAILS
PH0018, 2011, E-Government
-
Budget Ng Bayan
PH0019, 2011, Fiscal Openness