COA calls on Capitol heads to explain audit findings

AN exit conference was conducted yesterday by the Commission on Audit to give the department heads of the Cebu provincial government the opportunity to explain their side on COA’s audit findings as well as present their management reports.

Audit team leader Lolita Mercedes of COA Cebu Province explained that they called the meeting in order to get answers from the Capitol officials with regards to their findings.

“Nag-conduct mi og exit conference discussing our audit observations,” she said. “This is not yet final so we have also to get answers from the Capitol officials to validate our findings.”

According to Mercedes, after getting the department heads’ response to their findings, their audit findings will either be finalized or deleted; thus it was imperative that discussions made during the conference remain confidential.

“That’s why at this point in time, we prevent the attendance of the media because it’s not yet final,” she said.

Mercedes explained that the exit conference is conducted every year before they finalize their yearly audit reports, including the management reports of the department heads.

The audit reports, Mercedes said, will then be forwarded to their central office and once finalized, these will be posted in their website sometime after June of this year.

Provincial Administrator Mark Tolentino described the exit conference a good practice for transparency.