Duterte tells Cabinet to ignore preliminary COA audit reports

President Rodrigo Duterte instructed his Cabinet to disregard preliminary audit reports from the Commission on Audit (COA), expressing frustration over their premature release.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque clarified that Duterte's directive was specifically about preliminary reports and not the annual audit reports (AAR), stating the President respects COA's constitutional mandate.

Duterte had previously slammed COA for flagging the Department of Health's (DOH) deficiencies in its P67.3 billion pandemic fund use.

COA Chairman Michael Aguinaldo maintained that the agency must follow its constitutional mandate and that publishing annual audit reports on its website is legally required.

Aguinaldo also clarified that COA does not issue press releases about its findings.

However, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque claimed the COA annual audit reports (AARs) on various government agencies in 2020 were supposedly not final and should not be a cause of concern.

Roque advised the public to wait for the final reports as agencies can still respond to the findings.

Senators Risa Hontiveros and Panfilo Lacson asserted that Duterte cannot exempt government agencies from auditing procedures or encourage them to defy the COA.