THE Commission on Audit (COA) is a powerful constitutional body but previous heads of this supreme state audit institution had remained low-key and barely able to enforce the strength of their audit results which were usually treated as just an advice or warning by concerned government agencies.
The Constitution guarantees its independence as a commission, grants it powers to audit all accounts pertaining to all government revenues and expenditures and uses of government resources and to prescribe accounting and auditing rules. Its auditing powers are all-encompassing, including even private organizations that receive subsidies from the government, such as the Philippine Red Cross.
Media members are thus curious how newly appointed Commission on Audit Chairman Jose Calida, the former solicitor general, would go about his work. Calida assured reporters that he will continue the COA’s mandate of guarding government funds against misspending and corruption.
‘Now that the tables are turned, with Calida as chief auditor and the OSG a receiver of its auditing powers, will Atty. Calida reverse the rule and negate what he had said when he headed the OSG?’
Reporters had been accustomed to receive COA audit reports because the commission has been regularly uploading on its website annual audit reports on national government agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, local government units, state universities and colleges, and big-ticket projects. A week into his new post, Calida was unsure whether to continue the agency’s long-standing practice of publishing its audit reports.
As solicitor general in the Duterte administration, Calida ranked No. 12 in the list of government officials with the highest salaries received in year 2021, at P16.59 million. All the officials from No. 1 to No. 11 were from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Monetary Board, led by BSP Governor Ben Diokno at P41.81M. Calida was the only official not from the MB in the top dozen earners.
It should be recalled that when Calida was solicitor general, the COA called him out for receiving excessive allowances and honorariums in 2017 and 2016 despite COA Circular 85-25-E which limits the compensation of government officials and employees to only 50 percent of their annual basic salary.
According to state auditors, Calida received P8.376 million in allowances in 2017, of which P7.462 million was above the 50 percent limit of his annual pay of P1.828 million.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) had refuted the audit findings, saying the COA “has no authority” to issue an order setting a limit on allowances of government officials and employees under the Constitution.
Now that the tables are turned, with Calida as chief auditor and the OSG a receiver of its auditing powers, will Atty. Calida reverse the rule and negate what he had said when he headed the OSG?
The law should be the same in most situations. What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander. But Calida is an expert in what he does, or he would not be the highest paid official in the Executive Department, his overall take-home pay in 2021 even exceeding that of President Duterte.
