COA looks into financial records of 2 new GOCCS

MANILA, Philippines - Exercising its powers and functions in accordance with the law, the Commission on Audit (COA) has claimed audit authority over two new government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) to ensure that public funds handled by these agencies are used properly.

State auditors will now be monitoring the financial records of both the Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P) and the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board.

In two separate resolutions published in The STAR yesterday, COA Chairman Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan and Commissioner Heidi Mendoza asserted the agency’s right to look into the finances of the GOCCs.

The MCA-P was organized under Executive Order No. 849 as a subsidiary of the Development Bank of the Philippines Management Corp.

Tan and Mendoza said the GOCC’s Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws was approved only by the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2010 with an initial capital of P12 million from the government.

The HRVCB, on the other hand, was created only last year through enactment of the Human Rights Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013.

An attached agency of the Commission on Human Rights, it is tasked by law to act on and receive claims of human rights victims during the Marcos regime with an initial operating budget of at least P10 million.