Audit firm to lend expertise in polls

MANILA, Philippines - Putting a capstone to its 25th anniversary this year, Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A), one of the country’s leading auditing firms, will contribute its expertise to the May 13 midterm elections.

A major television network that will broadcast the senatorial election results has engaged the services of P&A to review the pre-election logic of its computerized vote tallying system and test it for accuracy.

In charge of the project for P&A is Juancho Robles, the firm’s advisory services head. He was handpicked, as he’s a certified fraud examiner and information system auditor. He also reviewed and tested the computerized vote tallying system during the last presidential elections.

Robles will supervise and monitor the P&A team throughout the validation, auditing and tabulation of the initial batches of election return data from the Commission on Elections.

Robles said the P&A is committed “to ensure fairness and impartiality in the reporting of the 2013 election results. P&A strictly abides to a policy of ensuring that no conflicts of interest occur that can potentially undermine the impartiality of the election results.”