COA tells Capitol: Support consultant’s fees with documents
THE Commission on Audit (COA) has ordered the Cebu provincial government to support payments of consultants with approved consultancy progress reports, otherwise payments will be disallowed in audit.
Based on COA’s annual audit report in 2017, the Capitol failed to support the P11,355,010 payments of consulting services with approved final reports and/or output required under the contract, which will validate the reported performance of the hired consultants.
“We recommend that end-users for consulting services be directed to be clear on the expected outputs from the hired consultants, and require the latter to submit Accomplishment Reports properly supported with the approved progress/final reports on outputs required under the contract to validate their performance vis-a-vis the expected outputs,” the COA report said.
“Otherwise, payments thereof will be disallowed in audit,” COA added.
The government auditors have cited the accomplishment report of Edgar Sibonga, a consultant for Planning and Development (Water Resource Development), which the Audit Team considered as the best example for showing the minutes of meetings, recommendations and other supporting documents.
COA also directed Provincial Human Resource Management Office (PHRMO) head Bonifer Nacorda to check the contracts and the consultant’s accomplishment reports.
State auditors likewise urged end-user offices to make sure that they also provide in the contract the expected output of their consultant.
COA’s recommendations were then noted by the agency officials.
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