Customs to undergo initial audit before COA evaluation

MANILA, Philippines - Starting this year, operations of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) — pronounced as the most corrupt agency by a survey — will be audited first by a non-government entity before being evaluated by state auditors.

The bureau was effectively added on the list of entities participating in the Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA) program by the Commission on Audit (COA) on Tuesday after signing an agreement with the agency and the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA).

In a joint statement, the agencies said the program will allow PICPA to evaluate the revenue assessment systems of Customs before going through the routine COA processes.

Customs is the second main government revenue agency traditionally accounting for a fifth of state revenues.

Specific areas to be evaluated will be determined through a “planning phase” among the agencies, results of which will be written in the terms to be crafted by COA.

“The Citizen Participatory Audit program aims to enhance the transparency in government operations as well as public accountability through COA’s collaboration with citizen groups…,” COA Chair Michael Aguinaldo was quoted as saying.

In a survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) that concluded in May, the BOC was named as the most corrupt agency after garnering a “very bad” -55 net rating on sincerity to fight corruption.

The score, nonetheless, was still an improvement from the similarly “very bad” -63 net rating the previous year. The SWS polled a total of 966 companies.

The CPA program, launched in 2014, allows civil society groups, non-government organizations and other public stakeholders to examine state agency operations guided by COA-mandated procedures.

In January, COA said it is now ready to pursue the phase two of the project after completing the first one which covered specific public undertakings such as the flood control project of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Solid Waste Management Program of Quezon City.

“We will provide all official records and documents, as well as data necessary to ensure the audit objectives, including facilities all parties will be needing,” Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina said.

The second phase of CPA initially only included evaluation of farm-to-market roads in Palawan and tourism roads in the Caraga region, among others.

As of the third quarter, Customs collected P268.229 billion, up 0.9 percent year-on-year, but fell way below its P314.171-billion target during the period.

It is tasked to collect P436.59 billion this year, which it already said it already conceded on meeting.