The Commission on Audit (COA; ) is an independent constitutional commission established by the

Constitution of the Philippines The Constitution of the Philippines (Filipino language, Filipino: ''Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas'' or ''Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas'') is the Constitution, supreme law of the Philippines. Its final draft was completed by the Philippine Constitution ...

. It has the primary function to examine, audit and settle all accounts and expenditures of the funds and properties of the

Philippine government The government of the Philippines () has three interdependent branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Philippines is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative and democratic constitutional repub ...

. The Commission on Audit is a creation of the 1973 constitution. It was preceded by the Office of the Auditor in 1899, renamed as the Bureau of the Insular Auditor in 1900, then to the Bureau of Audits in 1905. The 1935 constitution created the General Auditing Office (GAO), and was led by the Auditor General. The 1973 constitution renamed the GAO to the Commission on Audit, a collegial body led by a chairman, with two commissioners. That setup was retained by the 1987 constitution. The other two Constitutional Commissions are the

Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

and

Civil Service Commission A civil service commission (also known as a Public Service Commission) is a government agency or public body that is established by the constitution, or by the legislature, to regulate the employment and working conditions of civil servants, overse ...

Members

Description

The Commission on Audit is composed of a chairperson and two Commissioners. They must be

natural-born citizen A natural-born-citizen clause is a provision in some constitutions that certain officers, usually the head of state, must be "natural-born" citizens of that state, but there is no universally accepted meaning for the term ''natural-born''. The c ...

s of at least thirty-five years of age, and must be either a

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

or a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

. The members of the commission are appointed by the

President of the Philippines The president of the Philippines (, sometimes referred to as ) is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-ch ...

, with the consent of the Commission of Appointments, for a term of seven years without reappointment. In ''Funa v. Villar'', the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

ruled that a Commissioner can only be appointed as chairman if the unexpired term for the office of chairman and the term that the Commissioner had already served does not exceed seven years. In such case, the Commissioner promoted as chairman would serve the unexpired term of the chairman, forfeiting the duration of his original term as Commissioner. This was based on a case where Reynaldo A. Villar, who was appointed commissioner in 2004, was then appointed as chairman in 2008, making him serve out eleven years in total. Villar resigned before he served out the full seven-year term as chairman, but prior to the resolution of the case. The 1987 Constitution staggered the terms of the members of the Constitutional Commissions. Of the first appointees, the chairman would serve seven years (1st line), a Commissioner would serve five years (2nd line), and another Commissioner would serve three years (3rd line). The members of the commission can only be removed from office via death, resignation or impeachment.

Current composition

Former auditors general

The General Auditing Office was headed by the Auditor-General. The Auditor-General has a 10-year term, is appointed by the president, is confirmed by the

Commission on Appointments The Commission on Appointments (, abbreviated as CA) is a constitutional body which confirms or rejects certain political appointments made by the President of the Philippines. The current commission was created by the 1987 Constitution. Whil ...

, and can only be removed via impeachment by Congress. This agency preceded the present-day commission.

Membership history since 1987

Powers

In ''Jess Christoper S. Biong v. Commission on Audit'', the

ruled that the COA's audit power does not include the imposition of administrative penalties by its auditors upon culpable public officers.

References

External links

*
The Official Website of the Commission on Audit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Commission On Audit Audir

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Supreme audit institutions