Judiciary calls for reinstatement of audit body

After nearly two terms of absence, the DLSU Commission on Audit (CoA) is back on track once again, as it prepares to resume operations this coming term. Having been called upon by the judiciary for reinstatement, the CoA hopes to continue its run and gradually solidify its place in the University Student Government.

Reasons for dissolution

The USG Constitution states that the Commission on Audit shall act to monitor the flow of money into and out of the student government’s various units. Consequently, it is bound to submit its findings at the end of every trimester to the President, Chief Legislator and Chief Magistrate. With these primary functions at hand, the CoA is a valuable arm of the Judiciary, working to preserve the check-and-balance system in terms of USG finances and transparency.

A set of circumstances during the previous year, however, had unfortunately led to CoA’s early demise. “CoA wasn’t dissolved per se. It was simply a matter of the old members failing to recruit new ones to replace them. Therefore, come third term, the remaining members had already graduated, and the lack of appointed members ultimately led to the organization’s dissolution,” laments Miguel Adriano, former Chief Magistrate.

More than this, however, Adriano also points to excessively strict qualifications as a potential culprit. Two years ago, then 65th Eng LA Representative Tracey Liu and former Chief Magistrate Alexyss Alip pushed for less strict requirements in the appointment of a Chief Auditor for that particular year. In the resulting resolution, Liu and Alip called for the temporary suspension of the qualifications, having found them to be too demanding. Alip, in fact, said that if the USG were to strictly follow the Constitution during that time, “it [was] likely that [they would not have] a fully functional CoA for [that] year.”

Chief Auditor aspirants, for example, must have at least one year experience of auditing in the Office of the Treasurer (OTREAS) before being deemed eligible for the position. Adriano believes that this particular qualification is too restrictive, considering that there are already a lot of steep requirements for applicants. For one, not a lot of people get to serve one year in OTREAS, since the office itself has strict qualifications. If a person does end up serving for one year, however, he or she would hardly have any incentive to transfer to CoA. Looking for people who would want to leave their positions in exchange for an auditing job is difficult, and it is this that has barred many potential applicants from joining.

Besides this, Adriano also thinks that a lack of awareness on the part of the students has contributed to the unfortunate incident. Little exposure, he says, was a main factor in CoA’s premature dissolution. A lack of feasible incentives had also undermined the system. Students, he admits, have nothing to look forward to when they apply to CoA. “Once accepted as auditors, the students don’t have advance enrollment slots or publicity,” Adriano adds.

Reinstatement: preparations and implications

At present, the Commission on Audit does not have any appointees. Its present members, however, have been undergoing strict training with past CoA officials. The Judiciary hopes to conduct an exam and interview run after the lectures in order to assess each member’s competence. By the end of the term, it expects to appoint CoA officials, who shall subsequently audit financial reports from previous terms

The Judiciary has also sought to implement systems that will motivate students, particularly accounting and finance majors, to apply for positions in CoA. For instance, it intends to give out advance enrollment slots to applicants who successfully get appointed to major positions in the commission. In addition, more stringent qualifications have been temporarily relaxed in order to accommodate aspirants who are relatively less experienced in terms of auditing.

To bring these aspirants in, though, Adriano admits that the Judiciary has yet to intensify its own publicity campaign. In line with this, CoA plans to set up its own Publicity and Communications office after the appointment of officers in order to “accommodate the need for publicity.”

The efforts directed towards CoA’s reinstatement, however, shall not go to waste. While CoA may not play a major role in regulating financial management within the USG, Adriano still thinks that it has a stake in issues involving it.

“CoA can only act during the end of the trimester, when it starts to evaluate its audit reports,” Adriano shares. Therefore, it cannot call out student government units for supposedly unsound financial practices during the middle of the term. Nevertheless, CoA still has the power to report any alleged fund misappropriations to the USG upon the evaluation of financial reports, thus discouraging student officials from committing fraud.

In addition to this, Adriano has also noted that cases involving the loss of cash on hand have become regularly occurring. The presence of an institution like CoA, he believes, can urge other organizations to be more cautious with handling money at hand and can even encourage them to form facilities that make financial operations more effective and efficient.