By any measure or program that aims to prevent or eliminate corruption, the role of audit is crucial.

The role of the Commission on Audit (COA) is thus very important if President Benigno Aquino III is to deliver on his program of good governance.

Aquino has appointed Ma. Gracia Pulido Tan as COA chairperson, a no non-sense accountant who previously had stints in government as Finance Undersecretary.

In an interview with the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP), Tan said she accepted the position with the aim of ensuring that COA would be what it is meant to be– to ensure that public funds would have full and proper accounting.

August heralds the systematic releases of the Commission on Audit (COA) annual audit reports (AAR) of all government agencies and entities and its report on salaries and allowances (ROSA) of all government officials in national government agencies, water districts, and government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Among findings from early 2010 audit reports just released is the revelation that a presidential commission prevented the audit agency from conducting an audit for fiscal year 2010.

It appears the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (PCVFA) – an agency sitting within the Office of the President -- prevented the COA from doing an audit.

The most famous auditor of the country has a new bombshell with the just released “2010 Report on Salaries and Allowances (ROSA) Received by Principal Officers and Members of Governing Boards of Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) and their Subsidiaries and Secretaries, Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries and Other Officials of Equivalent Rank of National Government Agencies (NGAs).”

Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Heidi Mendoza said in the introduction to the 900-page report that the objective is “to promote transparency in government by monitoring the annual salaries and allowances received by government officials holding high and/or multiple positions as well as determine the total amount of emoluments and benefits received by them from different state agencies/instrumentalities with which they are affiliated.”

Without question, carrying the desires and expectations of a nation upon one’s shoulders is a huge burden and the challenge of combating corruption a Herculean task. Cynics might even claim it Sisyphean after the Corinthian king set the unavailing task of pushing an immense rock up a mountain for all eternity.

Yet whereas Hercules and Sisyphus labored alone, President Noynoy Aquino can call on a small army of secretaries, civil servants and advisers to help him. How useful they are in his quest of course depends partly on the level of leadership and quality of instructions given.  Finally, whereas the tasks set on Hercules and Sisyphus were purely physical, President Aquino has the harder challenge and is faced with changing traditions and patterns of behavior that are deeply rooted: For sure too, there are powerful vested interests which are working – perhaps even conspiring–  to hinder attempts to build a more transparent and accountable public sector.

It is good to see action finally being taken against government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) found to be breaking the law. But as we first reported here in March as our project website was publicly launched, information showing a blatant and seemingly endemic disregard for the law among some GOCC trustees and others has been freely available for several years –for anybody willing to look for it.

It doesn’t take a Heidi Mendoza to see that proper financial control has been missing in one of the government’s commissions set to protect the rights and well-being of our nation’s indigenous population.

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Republic Act 8371) mandated the merger of the Office for Northern Cultural Communities (ONCC) and the Office for Southern Cultural Communities (OSCC) into what is now the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in 1997.

Unless President P-Noy steps in and exercises his presidential power of appointment, the clouds gathering over the Commission on Audit (COA) may break into a storm which could prevent it from performing its constitutional duty –temporarily at least.

If this happens, the three-man collegial body of the COA known as the Commission Proper (CP) which is the highest audit appeals and policy-making organ of the Philippines’ supreme audit institution will grind to a halt. It is a real possibility given that two out of the three Commissioner seats fall vacant this week.