President Rodrigo Duterte says he wants to sit down with the officials from the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit to streamline auditing procedures and provide effective public services.
In a speech at the first anniversary of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission in Malacañang on Wednesday, Duterte said he would invite some officials from the Ombudsman and the COA to discuss auditing procedures and to come to an agreement on certain procedures.
“I’d like to sit with the Executive Secretary and maybe invite some guys from the Ombudsman and this auditing office and let’s agree on certain procedures,” Duterte said.
He had previously said that some COA officials should be kidnapped and tortured since they were making governance difficult for local officials.
“Their regulations are piling up there. They add more and more regulations. All of our auditors are crazy,” Duterte said.
“They are lost in a maze of so many requirements. Some are really stupid. I don’t want to insult them. I have a healthy respect for them.”
The President then said the mistakes committed and flagged by COA might not be corruption but just “short-sightedness.”
He lamented government officials facing charges for the violation of auditing rules.
He said he will disapprove the application of stiff auditing protocols, which could only cause a delay in implementing government’s projects.
“It could not really be corruption but it could be short-sightedness or plain…I will not follow that because that is stupid,” he said.
Despite his criticisms of the COA, Duterte clarified that he had a “healthy respect” for COA Chairman Michael Aguinaldo.