August 15, 2021 – The Department of Education (DepEd) expresses its gratitude to the Commission on Audit (COA) team in charge of the review of financial and operational accounts of nearly 45,000 public schools, 214 SDOs and 16 ROs (excluding BARMM), and the Central Office for noting its significant improvements on its Calendar Year (CY) 2020 Consolidated Annual Audit Report (CAAR).

Compared to the previous year, DepEd performed significantly better and was able to satisfactorily comply with the accounting standards set by the Commission, which is the basis of the CAAR. This, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic starting CY 2020.

Based on this year’s audit report, the Department has delivered an increase in the implementation of the compliance report through the substantial decrease in the misstatements noted by the Commission. The ‘Misstatements’ cited in the CAAR pertain to the difference between the actual financial statement items by the Management and those required by the accounting standards of the Commission. Those noted by the Commission were mainly identified as recording errors which are now being rectified by DepEd following the instructions/recommendations of the auditing agency.

DepEd wishes to emphasize that none of the initial findings pertained to corruption, malversation of public funds, negligence, or the betrayal of public trust. The nature of the observation issued by the Commission is a way for the audited agency to rectify deficiencies and improve the management of its budget through the former’s recommendation.

Last July 3, 2019, in recognition of the valuable efforts of COA, Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones issued OO-OSEC-2019-063 creating an Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) Task Force in the Department to recommend actions in possible areas of improvement, promote a proactive and immediate response to audit concerns, and institutionalize regular coordination between the two government agencies.

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DepEd’s Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn M. Sevilla is available for a more in-depth look at DepEd’s 2020 CAAR at usec.financebpm@deped.gov.ph or (02) 8633 9342.

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