Philippines
National
Despite pandemic challenges, DepEd 'satisfactorily' complies with COA's accounting standards
Despite pandemic challenges, DepEd 'satisfactorily' complies with COA's accounting standards
The Department of Education (DepEd) thanked Sunday, Aug. 15, the Commission on Audit (COA) for recognizing its efforts to comply with the current accounting standards.
DepEd said it was grateful to the COA team that reviewed the financial and operational accounts of nearly 45,000 public schools, 214 Schools Division Office (SDOs) and 16 Regional Offfices, excluding the the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and the Central Office.
The COA noted DepEd’s “significant improvements” on its Calendar Year (CY) 2020 Consolidated Annual Audit Report (CAAR).
"Compared to the previous year, DepEd performed significantly better and was able to satisfactorily comply with the accounting standards set by the Commission, which is the basis of the CAAR. This, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic starting CY 2020,” DepEd said in a statement.
“Based on this year’s audit report, the Department has delivered an increase in the implementation of the compliance report through the substantial decrease in the misstatements noted by the Commission.”
DepEd explained that the "misstatements" mentioned in the audit report pertain to the difference between the actual financial statement items by the Management and those required by the accounting standards of the COA.
“Those noted by the Commission were mainly identified as recording errors which are now being rectified by DepEd following the instructions/recommendations of the auditing agency,” it said.
“DepEd wishes to emphasize that none of the initial findings pertained to corruption, malversation of public funds, negligence, or the betrayal of public trust,” it stressed.
The Education department said the nature of the observation issued by the state auditors sought to “to rectify deficiencies and improve the management” of DepEd’s budget through their recommendation.
DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones created in 2019 an Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) Task Force “to recommend actions in possible areas of improvement, promote a proactive and immediate response to audit concerns, and institutionalize regular coordination” between COA and the department.