Vol. VIII No. 5
September.
October
1990
ISSN 0115-9097
]
Deviations from Government Financial Accountability Ledivina
V. Carifi,o
The Philippine People Power Revolution of 1986 was expected to usher in a new order of morality and accountabilityin the country. Yet, news reports of various scandals, charges of business groups and religious leaders, and even major speeches of President Corazon C. Aquino and Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan have suggested that accountability of government to the people as one of the prime democratic values has not been fully restored) The mishandling and loss of resources
special audits undertaken by the Commission on Audit (COA) from 1987 to 1989. While only a very small part of the bureaucracy ever becomes the focus of a special audit, reports of such audit are significant because they take a broader view than the regular annu_ audits which are usually limited to identifying violations of general accounting and auditing standards. Special audits are undertaken in response to requests of agency management or a higher authority, employees,
under the current government's stewardship continues to be one of the nme causes of people's dissatisfac-
clients, or anti-graft groups, suggesting doubts about certain agency operations. Thus, while this study is based
n. 2 Objectives.
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Sample Used. A total of 467 special audits has been undertaken by
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COA since thestart°ftheAquin°g ernment. Of this number, 317 have
Eufemio Domingo and to the entire COA staff for their cooperation and to Dolores
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domly sampled, only 53 had legible been released. Of the 72 reports ran-
assistance. L. Caffud for providing her with research Dr. Carifio is a noted profes_r of
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copies. Usedin 1987, as samples were ports d one 21 in 1988 and 26 sixrein
public administration University of the Philippines and is at thethe author of seve-
1989, eachyears. representing about per-ral spective Of the 53, only17 data from 44 reports are discussed in this paper. were discarded cent of Three the reports released inbecause the re-
countability, health administration and books, papers and articles on govern-
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So much has been written about the , widespread graft and corruption in government but most of these charges and allegations have yet to be properly quantiffed and documented. In this issue, our guest writer, Dr. Ledivina V. Carifio, cites official documents and comes out with
!
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NOTE
and how the deviations from financial accountability occur, and consequently on how such deviations might be tackled.
tempt to identify and analyze some of these resource leaks, as embodied in 44
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EDITOR'S
concrete figures confirming that deviations from government accountability were, indeed, committed by some public officials who were trusted to safeguard government resources. This article is part of Dr. Carifio's study on "Accountability and Corruption in a Redemocratizing Society" which is sponsored by the PhilippineNationalSciencesociety. Sheisgrate_ltotheCommissiononAuditChairman
This study is an at-
_r
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on a small sample , it provides a very rich source of information on where
cause they dealt wholly with transactionsduring the Marcos administration. Method. Ofthe 44 audit reports, 19 reviewed central and field offices of the national government, six focused on local governments, 10 looked into public Please turn to payee2
they were audits of non-government agencies, and six were not used be-
recent studies was done for the Institute entitled of Public ment and"AntheAssessment bureaucracy, public Adacregional development. One of her more ministration in the Philippines, 19861988."