Senate subcommittee approves COA’s proposed budget for 2022
THE Senate Finance Subcommittee has approved the proposed P14.463 billion 2022 budget of the Commission on Audit in less than 10 minutes.
Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate panel, endorsed COA’s proposed funding to the plenary as there were no senators who interpellated and raised their concerns with the audit body.
“The members of the committee and the chair, I think more than ever we’ll just as supportive if not more, since it’s your last year. And we’ve seen how the commission has worked under you, you’ve set a good example, no controversies,” Angara said.
Angara, at the same time, lauded COA chairperson Michael Aguinaldo for giving attention to the construction of COA buildings in each province across the country.
“That’s a nice legacy that you’ve given home to the provincial COAs. Well done, sir,” he said.
During the budget hearing, Aguinaldo requested the Senate panel to support the additional budget for the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) and the capital outlay for the construction of additional provincial satellite auditing offices (PSAOs).
Aguinaldo explained that as of June 30 they were able to complete 54 PSAOs in 54 provinces.
“The bulk of these or about 47 were constructed in the past six years and it could have been more if not for the pandemic and the quarantine it caused and we have an additional 14 that are undergoing construction, some of which may be finished soon, some are just starting their groundbreaking,” he said.
“In total, we have about 67 or 68 buildings that we hope will be completed by next year. So konti na lang po, we’ll be able to get for each province, malapit na po,” he added.
With this, the Senate Finance Committee chair assured full support to the budget proposal of COA.
