Poor internal audit pulls down E. Visayas management score

TACLOBAN CITY, Oct. 10  -- Local government units (LGUs) in Eastern Visayas reached an overall score of 2.54 in terms of financial performance, far from the ideal score of 4.0, largely due to the absence of internal audit service in municipalities, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported on Tuesday.

In a two-day consultation with mayors, treasurers, and budget officers that ended Tuesday, DBM Regional Director Imelda Laceras said the region fared well in the area of comprehensiveness and transparency of budget with a score of 3.15, but earned a low rating of 1.61 in terms of internal audit service.

“The overall score of the region is above average, but there’s a lot of improvements to be done. The higher the score, the public is more assured that they will feel the benefits of government services,” Laceras told PNA.

The major factors that pulled down the overall score is the absence of internal audit service in LGUs.

“The internal auditors are tasked to check if the budget are spent properly and if the hiring process of personnel is within the guidelines of the CSC (Civil Service Commission),” Laceras added.

San Roque, Northern Samar Mayor Don Abalon, president of the Northern Samar mayor’s league, said poor towns have no budget to create an internal audit unit and hire auditors.

“We are also constrained by personnel service limitations. Our proposal is to exempt third to sixth class municipalities from these limitations. The qualification standard is very high also and it’s hard to find a qualified auditor in Northern Samar,” Abalon explained.

Aside from career service professional eligibility, Internal Auditor V must have a master’s degree, four years of work experience involving management and supervision, and minimum of 24 hours of management and supervision training.

Laceras vowed to bring the concerns of local governments to CSC.

For other areas, the region also got a higher score in citizen’s participation (3.07), credibility of the budget (2.82), accounting and reporting (2.58), predictability and control in budget execution (2.48), policy-based budgeting (2.07).

The result is based on this year’s public financial management (PFM) assessment that used a self-assessment, evidence-based instrument, which describes the characteristics of an open and orderly PFM system using seven critical dimensions.

Laceras said national government agencies such as DBM, Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) have been meeting with local government officials regularly to discuss way on improving financial management.

In the past meetings, local governments came up with 2,605 proposed PFM improvement plan. Of the number, 1,332 have been fully implemented, 832 are ongoing and 441 have not yet started.

The improvement plans are set of programs, projects and activities that will be undertaken by the local government to address the areas in PFM that need to be further improved and sustained based on the assessment by the LGU of the different critical dimensions of an open and orderly PFM system provided under the PFM assessment tool.

The Regional Inter-Agency Teams for PFM composed of the regional directors and at least two technical staff from DBM, DILG, BLGF and NEDA has lined up trainings and consultation with local governments to attain higher score before the 2019 elections. (SQM/PNA)