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Sub-theme D: Responding to Disaster and Pandemic Issues

Presented by:

Maribeth F. De Jesus

SAI – PHILIPPINES

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NATURAL DISASTER

Natural disasters are major adverse events resulting from natural processes of the earth or what is known as acts of God which cause widespread destruction of lives and property. Its subgroups and definition are presented below:

Most of the disasters that the Philippines experienced are typhoons, storms, flood, earthquake and volcanic eruption which are geophysical, meteorological and hydrological in nature due to its geographic location. The Philippines sits on the southern portion of the Pacific Ring of Fire, where two major tectonic plates (Philippine Sea and Eurasian) meet, makes it highly prone to earthquakes, and as a consequence, to tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. It is also situated within the Pacific typhoon belt, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.

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MAN-MADE DISASTER

Influenced by humans and they are often a result of negligence and human error among other factors

On the other hand, man-made disasters are influenced by humans and they are often a result of negligence and human error among other factors. On May 23, 2017, government forces clashed with armed fighters from two Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, also known as ISIS. The siege was triggered when the military tried to arrest top ISIL leader Isnilon Hapilon. These prompted attackers to fight back, declaring Marawi City a new caliphate of ISIL. Initially, the battle was predicted to be over within weeks. The capture of Marawi, however, led to the longest siege by armed fighters in the Philippines, which ended on October 16, 2017 or five months after, when government troops stormed a hideout, killing both Hapilon and Maute.

Government’s policies, guidelines and responses/interventions are mostly on these types of disasters. It has not experienced a biological disaster of wide magnitude when Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit all countries, including the Philippines in 2020 and still on-going.

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GOVERNMENT RESPONSES, INTERVENTIONS and ACCOUNTABILITY

Government’s policies, guidelines and responses/interventions are mostly on these types of disasters. It has not experienced a biological disaster of wide magnitude when Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit all countries, including the Philippines in 2020 and still on-going.

COVID-19 has put unprecedented pressure on people and governments in all countries, both developing and developed. Regular public health management institutions are grappling with managing the scale of the emergency. Governments have announced border closures, lockdowns of domestic economic activities, and financial packages to provide emergency support to their citizens and businesses. Many decisions are being made by circumventing the laws, rules and regulations. The Philippines response to COVID-19 has been described as being one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world. Entire provinces and cities were put into lockdown, mobility was restricted, and the wearing of masks and face shields and social distancing were strictly enforced.

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COA’s ROLE

Ensure accountability for public resources;
Become part in the development of a sound financial management;
Examine proper execution of administrative activities;
Provide information to public authorities and the general public through the publication of objective reports; promote transparency;
And help improve government operations in partnership with stakeholders for the benefit of the Filipino people

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RESPONSE TO DISASTERS AND PANDEMIC

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With the massive scale and urgency of the government’s rescue, recovery, relief and rehabilitation efforts and the huge amounts involved brought about by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, the COA immediately responded and issued COA Resolution No. 2013-024 on November 20, 2013. The said resolution required the immediate post-audit of the rescue, relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts and activities during the period of the State of National Calamity. COA's goal is to improve the availability, reliability and quality of financial information on disaster funds, make it more transparent, enhance accountability and mitigate potential risks in disaster-related transactions. Thereafter, the COA, through its constitutionally mandated duty of promulgating accounting and auditing rules and regulations, formulated the following guidelines to achieve better quality financial reports and availability of information:

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COA Issuances

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COVID-19 PANDEMIC

As the nation faces difficult times due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, there is a need for the COA to support the efforts of the government in providing the needs of the citizens and health workers during the period of the State of Calamity. Distribution of various donations in-kind and relief goods received by government agencies from private organizations or individuals should not be unnecessarily delayed without necessarily disregarding basic controls to ensure that the donations are properly accounted for.
These developments brought changes in the way government agencies functions, to which Auditors need to adapt to ensure that while a certain amount of leniency is allowed to expedite efforts to respond to the challenges of COVID-19, government transactions and funds remain properly accounted for.

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DISASTER AUDITS CONDUCTED

At present, there is no government-wide or sectoral audit of disaster management. The audit is done on a per agency basis which focused mostly on disaster preparedness, response and recovery while all other programs relating to disaster prevention and mitigation have not been subjected to audit.

Some of the audits conducted by the COA relating to DRRM include the following:

1. Special audit conducted in 2013 on the relief operations during the State of National Calamity, under Proclamation No. 682, s. 2013, particularly in the Provinces of Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan and Palawan. This is also known as the Audit of Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) Relief Operations.

2. Assessment of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) at the Local Level in CY 2014.

3. Performance audit conducted in 2016 on the Geo-Hazard Mapping and Assessment Program of the DENR-MGB, aimed to mitigate the impact of geologic hazards. Generally, the audit was aimed to determine whether the Program was efficiently and effectively implemented.

4. Performance audit on Disaster Risk Preparedness Program to assess whether disaster risk preparedness programs of LGUs in the National Capital Region (NCR) for CY 2016 are already in place and implemented, and the goals and objectives of the program are achieved, two cities were selected as case studies: Quezon City and Malabon City. This report focused on: (1) the goals and objectives of the Disaster Risk Preparedness Program of the two LGUs; (2) the extent these LGUs met the funding requirements of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (LDRRM) Fund; and (3) the extent the LGUs achieved the programs’ goals and objectives for CY 2016.

5. Performance audit conducted in 2018 on one of DRRM projects of Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) namely “Disaster Awareness and Preparedness, Information Material and Tools Development and Dissemination focusing on DRR Capacity-Building and DRR Communication for CYs 2016-2017 in selected areas.” Generally, the objective of the audit was to determine whether PHIVOLCS effectively capacitated the key stakeholders through timely distribution of adequate information materials and conduct of seminars/trainings.

6. Audit of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Fund of various government agencies on an annual basis which started in CY 2014 as part of the regular audit of agencies. A Consolidated Report is prepared in compliance to Section VII, 9 of COA Memorandum 2014-009 dated August 28, 2014.

7. Financial and Compliance Audit of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Funds during the period of the State of National Emergency for CY 2020, which will be continued every year until there are funds provided for COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the audit undertaken by audit teams in agencies with COVID-19 Funds were reported in the CY 2020 audit report of the agencies concerned.

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CHALLENGES

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existing processes for confirming that donations received are all accounted for were insufficient
no means to analyze a disaster victim’s eligibility for assistance due to unavailability of records and documents
unwelcome presence of the audit teams to various officers busy in attending to disaster response

CHALLENGES DURING THE DISASTER AUDIT

Some of the challenges faced by the auditors in conducting the audit during disaster/calamity, particularly in the special audit of Typhoon Yolanda Relief Operations, are the following:

1. Existing processes for confirming that donations received are all accounted for were insufficient. Given the many sources of donations, majority of which were not coursed through government agencies, there was no way to track the flow of aid.

2. There are no means to analyze a disaster victim’s eligibility for assistance as documentary requirements are not considered due to the urgency of need. Given the long queues for food packs, auditors could no longer require the presentation of eligibility documents or even identification cards due to the massive destruction that included loss of records and documents, not to mention the condition of the victims themselves who had not eaten for days.

3. The presence of the audit teams seemed to be unwelcome to the various officers busy in attending to disaster response as they were there in the field simultaneously observing the processes in procurement, repacking and distribution so as to ensure that every cent spent in order to save lives is completely protected.

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alternative work arrangements adopted and nonsynchronous work schedules caused by lockdowns
lack of ICT equipment and connectivity; and lack of knowledge/training and guidelines/procedures on use of virtual platforms for remote audit
difficulties in obtaining documents and gathering of information/data for non-computerized auditees
access to auditee’s accounting system and files remotely has been limited
field visits for validation and inspection are hindered

CHALLENGES DURING THE PANDEMIC

During this COVID-19 pandemic, the auditors faced the following challenges:

1. Audit works are not progressing as desired and has impeded the timely delivery of audit services due to the alternative work arrangements adopted such as the maintenance of skeletal workforce, work from home, compressed work week, and staggered work hours as well as nonsynchronous work schedules with the auditee caused by lockdowns, resulting in the re-programming of audit milestones and extend deadlines.
2. Some staff cannot function through work-from-home arrangement due to challenges on ICT equipment availability and connectivity; and lack of knowledge/training and guidelines/procedures on the use of virtual platforms for remote audit.
3. There were difficulties in obtaining documents and gathering of information/data given that auditees are not highly computerized resulting in protracted periods to gather sufficient audit evidence.
4. Access to auditee’s accounting system and files remotely has been limited, thus, the auditees are requested to provide data extracted from the system and scanned documents.

5. Field visits for validation and inspection are hindered due to health and community quarantine protocols and imposed travel restrictions. Audit teams merely rely on the results of confirmation sent thru electronic mails that sometimes affect information integrity.

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Actions undertaken to address challenges

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use of virtual platforms in conducting meetings with staff and audit teams and interviews/meetings with auditee’s key stakeholders
assignment of focal points to coordinate and respond to the needs of audit teams
establishment of monitoring and feedback mechanisms
policies and procedures were revisited and enhanced to address challenges as they arise

Actions undertaken

To address these challenges, the following actions were undertaken:

Use of virtual platforms in conducting meetings with staff and audit teams and interviews/meetings with auditee’s key stakeholders. Official communication, audit queries, and data collection were made through electronic mails, online and telephone. Messenger group chat was also created for ease of communication within the audit group and audit team.
Focal points were assigned by the auditees to coordinate and respond to the needs of audit teams to facilitate the audit. Documents were scanned for ease of access. If internal system and files cannot be accessed remotely, the responsible personnel were requested to provide the extracted information and data from the system through the focal points.
Monitoring and feedback mechanisms were established for COA to address the concerns of the team by requiring the audit teams to prepare and submit weekly commitment and accomplishment reports and issuing guidelines and instructions.
Policies and procedures were revisited and enhanced to address challenges as they arise. Certain amount of leniency is allowed to expedite efforts to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring at the same time that the government transactions and funds remain properly accounted for.

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Collaboration with the policymakers and responders�
Digitization of government transactions and use of ICT in audit�
Development of Audit Service Continuity Plan�
Enhancement of Organizational Capacity

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