PASIG CITY, August 9, 2019 – The Department of Education (DepEd) has been informed of the Commission on Audit (COA) findings. The Department is already working with its internal and regional units to comply with the audit recommendations.

Some of the findings are due to late updating of consolidated reports and reconciliation of voluminous records with implementing units.

The DepEd assures that most of the accounts have already been reconciled while some are just completing documentation, hence, these are not yet liquidated. It has to be explained that all budget given to a total of 36,000 elementary schools are considered as cash advance, hence considered “unliquidated” if reports are yet to be verified and reconciled.

There are several cited amounts and different activities, as a result of the consolidation of all accounts of the DepEd Central Office, 16 regions, more than 232 division offices, and about 43,000 schools, which refer to several Audit Observation Memoranda (AOMs) issued by various COA auditors as well.

We have complied with the request to submit to COA our explanations to the specific observations/findings. The Secretary and the Executive Committee have instructed the program teams concerned to follow strict controls to prevent the same findings in the future.

The Department continues to advance its reforms to financial management through the establishment of a Financial Management Reforms Committee chaired by the Secretary herself.

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