COA asks DBM to fix SARO reporting system

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) is asking the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to fix its system of reporting Special Allotment Release Orders (SARO) and Notice of Cash Allocations (NCA) for government projects, saying the system is confusing.

In a 2012 report released over the weekend, state auditors said the reporting and monitoring system in the release of SAROs and NCAs in the DBM central office does not include controls on the number sequence.

This had resulted in gaps in the number series of SAROs and NCAs issued last year, thus casting doubt on the completeness of the listing.

State auditors reminded the DBM that Section 123 of Presidential Decree 1445 or the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines requires state agencies and organizations to adopt coordinated methods and measures to safeguard their assets, check the accuracy and reliability of accounting data, and encourage adherence to prescribed managerial policies.

At present, the DBM uses four application systems for preparing the budget of the national government as well as for releasing and monitoring allotments and cash programs.

The COA report identified the applications as the Electronic Budget System (e-budget), the Foreign Assisted Projects (FAPs) Database System, the Electronic Transparency and Accountability Initiatives for Lump Sum Funds (e-tails) Database System, and the Manually Prepared System (MPS).

“As observed, each system has its own number series. To account for all the SAROs and NCAs issued for the year, a listing of all issuances of SAROs and NCAs per system should be made,” COA said.

“For 2012, our review of the SARO and NCA listings submitted by the DBM-Budget Technical Service (BTS) disclosed that there were 44,970 SAROs and 51,758 NCAs with total amount of P1,076,236,898,308.34 and P1,370,194,118,945.20, respectively, released under various applications,” the audit team added.

State auditors said a review and comparison of the total number of SAROs based on the number series and the number of SAROs per listings showed differences of 1,757.

The audit team took a sample of NCA issuances for January 2012 and also noted gaps in the number series of NCA for e-budget and e-tails systems.

A BTS official informed COA that only manually prepared SAROs and NCAs undergo monitoring because the number series are controlled and recorded in the logbook of BTS.