Before I concluded my tour of duty as a Commissioner of the Commission on Audit (COA) last February 2, 2025, I stepped out of my comfort zone to visit our various Regional Offices. My intention was to cascade and discuss an Artificial Intelligence (AI) application called PRISM with our field auditors. Developed by COA’s IT personnel, PRISM is a cornerstone of the Commission’s Audit Modernization program.

PRISM, or the Project Reporting of Infrastructure Schedule Monitoring System, was developed by Team SAI Philippines. This project won first place at the professional level in the Hackathon BPK Competition in Indonesia, themed “Hack for Accountability and Transparency,” held virtually by the Audit Board of Indonesia in January 2021. The competition aimed to improve public engagement in audit-related activities by encouraging software development that assists in auditing while enhancing public awareness of accountability. The COA team—composed of Gerald M. Mendeja (Project Lead), Jewelle Caezar G. Gadiano, and Marwin A. de Guzman from the Information Technology Office (ITO)—designed PRISM as an AI application for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting government infrastructure projects across web and mobile platforms.

PRISM features integrated tools for both auditors and the public, including a visual dashboard, analytics, geotagging, and an open-data web portal. The application enables citizens to participate in infrastructure audits by sharing data and images that feed directly into the PRISM Portal. By utilizing geotagging technology, users can capture and submit location-based information through their mobile phones, which are the most accessible devices available today.

The system is composed of three distinct subsystems. The first is the PRISM Mobile Companion App, which is used for geotagging and reporting. It allows the public to conveniently capture and submit photos of infrastructure projects and view nearby projects through integrated mapping features. The second is the PRISM Admin Portal, which serves as the platform for data build-up and management. Authorized personnel use this portal to collect, organize, and manage project information within the system. Finally, the PRISM Public Web Portal functions as a public dashboard for monitoring various government projects. It is an open-data visualization platform that allows the public to explore data uploaded from both PRISM and the GAPPAIS database. GAPPAIS, or the Government Agencies Project Program Activity Information System, is an existing COA system that records details of programs, projects, and activities (PPAs) as reported by various government agencies.

To maintain public safety and security, the application collects only necessary data such as device information, location coordinates, and captured photo metadata. COA PRISM follows industry-standard data collection practices, and no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is collected.

The process flow begins when the PRISM Mobile App automatically fetches a list of government projects from the GAPPAIS database based on the user’s location. To get started, a user simply clicks the camera icon to capture and submit a photo together with relevant information. Once submitted, the data is stored securely on the PRISM cloud server. PRISM then automatically sends an email notification to the concerned Director, Supervising Auditor, and Audit Team so they can verify the submission against GAPPAIS. The system is also integrated with the Citizens’ Desk Reporting System (CDRS) for feedback mechanisms, and the public can view the resulting data through the open-data visualization platform on the PRISM Public Web Portal.

The idea behind PRISM is to promote accountability and transparency through the collection of audit-related data for analytical reports and visualization. Inspired by the scientific concept of a prism, the system represents transparency by transforming raw data into clear, meaningful insights. Just as a physical prism refracts light into a spectrum, this system converts complex information into comprehensive reports that empower decision-makers and make government project data accessible to the public.

Whether during a pandemic or under normal circumstances, PRISM remains a valuable tool for conducting remote audits. Now that I have retired from COA, I hope our auditors not only remember the importance of PRISM from our discussions but, more importantly, continue to actively use this tool. This technology is vital to help prevent, or at least detect, the existence of “ghost” infrastructure projects.