Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No. 2301

Introduced by Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo

EXPLANATORY NOTE

“Too many stairs and back doors make thieves and whores,” Balthazar Gerbier did say

The Philippine administrative system or bureaucracy so-called over many years may have
unwittingly been under heavy infestation of public officials as well as private individuals into
the near ‘art’ or near ‘science’ of corruption that has plagued state agencies, bureaus, and
offices. Nothing can seem to stop this vicious bureaucratic orgy.

It's about time to put an end to the feast and kill the beast.

This instant bill puts a surefire stop to embezzlement of public funds by constituting the
Commission on Audit, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Committee on Oversight of
Congress into a tripartite body with that singleness of purpose, namely — to run after corrupt
officials and private individuals and hold them to account.

Audit is crucial. It will remain to be so through a no-nonsense approach that yields together
the capacities of three institutions into a merged one — more committed, more dedicated,
and more bound by conscience than by instruction.

Thereby, no more test of wills. Let good governance pass the litmus test by calling a spade
a spade. It is time to stand on the moral high ground of righteousness, if we as a people,
can. It is time to draft the true code of conduct in public service that should be better in its
praxis than in its text

In this proposal, the tasks have been exhaustively outlined and they are regarded to put an
end to a problem that has existed since time immemorial. A judicious perusal of the inherent
merits of this bill indicate a resultant goal to truly making COA as the enabled watchdog
against irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable expenditures, or
uses of government funds and properties.

The immediate passage of this bill is highly sought.



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 2301

Introduced by Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo

AN ACT
CONSTITUTING THE COMMISSION ON AUDIT (COA), OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN,
AND COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT OF CONGRESS INTO A TRIPARTITE BODY TO BE
KNOWN AS THE LEGISLATIVE AUDIT COUNCIL TO PERFORM IDENTIFIED TASKS
ENABLING GOVERNMENT TO EFFECTIVELY RUN AFTER CORRUPT OFFICIALS AND
PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND HOLD THEM TO ACCOUNT FOR EMBEZZLEMENT OF
PUBLIC FUNDS

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines
in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. The Commission on Audit (COA), Office of the Ombudsman, and
Committee on Oversight of Congress are hereby constituted as a tripartite body to be known
as the ‘Legislative Audit Council’ that will perform identified tasks enabling government to
effectively run after corrupt officials and private individuals and hold them to account for
embezzlement of public funds.

SEC. 2. Under this Act, the Legislative Audit Council shatl be composed of the
Commissioner of the Commission on Audit or his designated representative, the
Ombudsman or his designated representative, and the chairman of the House Committee on
Oversight and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Oversight or their designated
representatives, respectively,

SEC. 3. The composition of the Legislative Audit Council shall perform any or all of
the following acts or other future acts it may deem relevant to its main goal to run after
corrupt and private individuals and hold them to account for embezzlement of public funds,
as follows:

1. shall be responsible for the oversight of the state audit program

2. shall review stewardship of public funds

3. shall monitor action to correct weaknesses disclosed by the audits of state
agencies

4. shall take definitive action on financial and compliance reports and performance
audits

5. shall conduct public hearings on all major audits of state agencies to review
problems, assess agency stewardship, and secure remedial action

6. shall initiate and cause review of management and program audits and
investigations

7. shall make recommendations for corrective legislation and other measures to
remedy weaknesses disclosed through audits or at council meetings

8. shall monitor agency progress in implementing correction action


9. shall ensure that public funds would have proper and full accounting and that
transactions are transparent and consistent with sound bidding and auditing
requirements

10. shall send public officials or private individuals found to have embezzled public
funds to serve sentence in jail, pay fines, and reimburse to the government all
sums of money siphoned off from anomalous transactions

11. shall shift to adopt the visitorial system approach in auditing and do away with the
residency audit approach

12. shall serve as a pool of experts in various fields to ensure integrity of the council
waiving thereby COA's ten-year requirement of practice of profession in the case
of certified public accountants and lawyers

13, shall ensure freedom from technical and procedural errors that commonly
frustrate the ends of justice and undermines the role of the Legislative Audit
Council as watchdog against "irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or
unconscionable expenditures, or uses of government funds and properties”

14. shall eliminate if not totally eradicate practices inimical to good governance such
as but not limited to irregular transactions, lost funds, ghost procurement, non-
existent projects, contracts without the conduct of public bidding, infrastructure
Project overpricing, anomalous negotiated purchases, unnecessary procurement,
and the like

SEC. 4. Under this Act, there is neither new office created thereby nor any new funds
appropriated to carry out the provision of this Act. However, let the Commission on Audit be
the Office of Primary Responsibility to issue rules and regulations to fully implement this Act.

SEC. 5. All issuances, laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations or parts thereof
Not consistent with this Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SEC. 6. This Act shall take effect thirty (30) days after its publication in the Official
Gazette and in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

Approved,