AFTER NEARLY a decade of inactivity, the Commission on Audit (CoA) has resumed operations to account for the Sanggunian’s increased student activity and budgeting schemes.
Now, CoA seeks to work together with the Student Judicial Court and the Office of the Ombudsman as student arms independent of the Sanggunian to ensure financial accountability in managing the student council’s funds. In particular, CoA writes and publishes semestral audit reports on the Sanggunian’s expenses.
Chief Commissioner on Audit Justin Jimenez also highlights that CoA retains transparency in the Sanggunian’s budgeting through monitoring the Sanggunian’s accounts under the Office of Student Activities (OSA). If any, CoA files petitions or complaints against any Sanggunian official whom they find guilty of misappropriating funds.
In response to the Sanggunian’s budgeting for AY 2022—2023, CoA will release its first audit report by the onset of the second semester. Moreover, Jimenez expects that CoA will be fully operational by the second semester.
Regulating the present
Working on the commission’s first audit report for the year, CoA Auditor Danathea Ilaya noted that the sharp increase in the Sanggunian’s projected expenses for the first semester of AY 2022–2023—a swelling Php 3 million compared to AY 2021–2022’s budget of Php 1.5 million—is due to the revival of onsite projects.
Sanggunian Vice President Danielle Andres also explained that OSA allowed the Sanggunian to disregard the semestral budget cap. Instead, they can propose a larger budget for expenses, given that they keep the total expenses within Php 3 million per school year.
Since October, CoA has already begun critiquing this initial budget proposal for the first semester, having flagged at least Php 347,660 in ambiguity. These included ambiguous allocations for parties, uniforms, event initiatives, training workshops, student subsidies, and emergency funds.
Jimenez said that the Sanggunian was receptive to their comments, specifically in removing the funds for parties and uniforms. However, he notes that they rejected CoA’s recommendations regarding the new Sanggunian website and Facebook post boosts.
With regard to such rejections, Jimenez added that these were further justified through an exchange of letters. “[If any,] all complaints and discrepancies in line with the financial matter shall be forwarded to the Ombudsman for further investigation,” he added.
Resolving past issues
Aside from auditing the Sangguninan’s budget proposal, Jimenez highlighted that CoA’s goals primary focus in the coming weeks is on revising its internal policies and procedures such as rewriting CoA’s audit manual. “In the process of creating our initial report, we realized that we don’t have a lot of set practices or guidelines to base off succeeding reports on,” Jimenez explained.
Moreover, he added that they are currently reworking their Code of Internal Procedures since the use of the online setting has required CoA to establish new and more efficient procedures for online transactions.
CoA also seeks to recruit more auditors to increase manpower in their expected tasks. “CoA has been vacant for over half a decade now. […] So it’s pretty odd as well, that [the Sanggunian] was able to function from those years without an auditing arm,” Jimenez added.
In the meantime, Jimenez said that current responsibilities under CoA are taken care of by coordinating with the Office of the Ombudsman.
Accounting for the future
As CoA gears up to become fully operational in auditing the Sanggunian’s budgets, Andres assured that they are able to ensure financial responsibility even without CoA’s comments. She cited the Central Assembly’s (CA) six-day first-semester budget hearings that improved the overall understanding of fund management within the Sanggunian. However, she remarked that it was still inefficient.
For instance, in October, the DBM appealed for the recalculation of the Sanggunian’s budget during the CA’s budget hearings. Consequently, Sanggunian President TJ Alcantara vetoed this initial budget upon the recognition of tabulation errors—a factor to which Andres emphasizes the need to strengthen the DBM’s financial skills.
Regarding such budget hearings, Jimenez hopes that CoA can do live commenting in future CA budget hearings—addressing CoA’s problem in tediously revising or creating documents in response to budget concerns.
Andres echoes Jimenez’s suggestions, mentioning the inefficiency of commenting on documents as opposed to actively participating in the budget hearings. She adds that the commission’s presence can be recognized in the University more in this manner.
With regard to CoA’s role, Andres regards CoA as a “good challenge” to have since it can ensure the Sanggunian’s accountability, transparency, and communication with budgeting.
According to Andres, the commission’s presence helps the Sanggunian realize that their DBM should be given more support in facilitating financial transactions, such as reimbursements, budget transfers, and the like.
In understanding CoA and the Sanggunian’s relationship, Andres said that they will continue to work with CoA, highlighting that both bodies pursue transparency and accountability within the student body.
