Featured Commitment – The Philippines
Country: The Philippines
Commitment: Citizen Participatory Audits
National Action Plan: 2013-2015
Following public outcry over the misuse of priority development assistance funds, and faced with the daunting task of monitoring the transactions of over 161,000 government units with fewer than 7,000 state auditors, the Philippines Commission on Audit (COA) pioneered the Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA) project. CPA brings together civil society organizations (CSOs), ordinary citizens, and COA auditors to monitor progress on government-funded development projects and participate in a joint audit process. The Philippines’ first OGP National Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... (NAP) included a commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... to develop four pilot CPA projects for flood control, health facilities, solid waste management and building schools. The country’s second NAP included activities to institutionalize the CPA process and release findings from the four pilot CPA projects.
At the time of publication of the last IRM progress report, findings of three of the four pilot projects had been published. Due to sensitive findings uncovered by the CPA project, the fourth audit report on the Department of Education’s School Building Program was upgraded to a fraud report. The CPA commitment is continued in the third OGP NAP, and CSOs report that two new audit reports have been published.
Filipino civil society stakeholders note that while the CPA process does not have the coercive power to hold government officials accountable, the projects have led to a more collaborative process between the COA, CSOs and citizens. The process has improved citizen understanding of the role of government audit and allowed citizens to see the value of citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More in the audit process.