The Citizen Participatory Audit

Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA) is a participative audit that involves the citizens of the nation in cooperation with an audit institution in the audit of the government (Pulido Tan, 2013).  In the context of internal auditing, participative audit includes the auditee in the audit process whereby the auditor and auditee collaborate without sacrificing the independence of the auditor.

Public transparency and accountability have been an advocacy among 60 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and civic organizations over the last ten years (Ramkumar, 2007, p.2). To assess the extent of accountability and transparency to the public, the International Budget Project (IBP) conducted a survey among 59 countries in October 2006, whereby it revealed the lack of awareness and involvement of the citizens to the budget and audit practices in their countries. Thus, there is a need to increase the working relationship between the public audit institutions with the civil society (p.2).

In November 2006, a conference entitled ‘Dialogue on Civil Society Engagement in Public Accountability’ was held in Manila co-hosted by the IBP, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA) with the joint participation of representatives from the civil society groups and public institutions including India, South Africa, Philippines, Argentina, South Korea and Mexico (Ramkumar, 2007, p.3). This conference saw the importance of the civil society organizations in building public transparency and accountability and recommended the civil society organizations to work with the audit institutions to detect and report cases of corruption, augment the undertakings of audit, and hasten the implementation of audit recommendations in the government (p.3).

In the Philippines, the Commission on Audit (COA) Chair, Maria Gracia M. Pulido Tan has initiated the Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA), in support with a symposium she attended last July 2011 in Vienna with the theme ‘Effective Practices of Cooperation between Supreme Audit Institutions and Citizens to Enhance Public Accountability’ (Tan, 2013). Tan discussed the concept of CPA as the involvement of citizens in the auditing process since COA as an ‘independent constitutional body’ has the exclusive power to audit the government and it is worthwhile to include the citizens as stakeholders to the auditing process itself due to the government’s accountability to its people—the citizens of the Philippines (par. 3,7 & 8).

This government’s action in engaging people in administration that aims to eradicate corruption in the government is consistent with its democratic form. Moreover, it agrees with the ethical principles stated in the Markkula Framework established by Santa Clara University in the US. The Markkula underlying principles are:

1. Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a general term for any view that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society. In any situation, the ‘right” action or policy is the one that will produce the greatest net benefits or the lowest net cost (Velasquez, 2006, p.61). With the application of CPA, it will produce the greatest benefits on the Filipino citizens because they will take part in the evaluations of government projects which funds generally came from them.

2. Rights and Duties

Moral rights or human rights are based on moral norms and principles that specify that all human beings are permitted or empowered to do something or are entitled to have something done for them (p.74). The government has its obligations to its people and it is the right of its people to be active in watching out these obligations which citizens can exercise their right through the CPA.

3. Justice and Fairness

Justice and fairness is concerned with the comparative treatment given to the members of a group when benefits and burdens are distributed (p.85). Allegations of corruption and the use of public funds for personal pursuits are filed against public officers and that the government should give justice because these public funds are from the hard-earned money of its citizens and it will be fair if citizens will become part of the team that will audit these funds.

4.  Virtue

Moral virtue is acquired disposition that is valued as part of the character of a morally good human being and that is exhibited in the person’s habitual behavior (p.110). The government officials will be observant of their behaviors with the existence of CPA enhancing public accountability and transparency.

5.  Due Care

This is an ethic that emphasizes caring for the concrete well-being of those near to us (p.102). Through CPA, the government showed its care to its people and that it values its citizens.

6. Human Dignity and Common Good

According to Catholic Social Teachings, how we organize our society -- in economics and politics, in law and policy -- directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community. In this context, CPA movement promotes dignity to Filipino citizens and that it promotes the human development by giving importance for them to take part in managing the country.

The CPA will start its operation through the Citizen’s Desk located under the office of the COA Chairman. Citizens are encourage to report, comment and suggest their ideas and knowledge about government projects in texting and contacting the hotline manned by a COA staff in the Citizen’s Desk (par. 10). The audit team will include two to three ordinary citizens from the locality of the project site and they will be trained to perform low-technical aspects of the audit (par. 18). Tan added that with CPA, citizens will have an increased awareness and knowledge of the government, their ownership of public funds that came from their taxes will be strengthened, they will be part of government decisions, and public service delivery will be improved.

According to Pulido Tan (2014), recent implementation of CPA could be seen based on the pilot audits on the CAMANAVA Flood Control Project, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and Barangay Health Centers, and the Solid Waste Management Project of Quezon City.  CPA is also engaged with the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Governance (CCAGG), “a non-governmental organization that monitors government projects in the Abra region of the northern Philippines” (COA, 2005).

With the Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA), the government audit manifests its duty on the promotion of good governance through the qualities of transparency and accountability by the involvement of its citizen to whom the government has the ultimate accountability. CPA is worth the endeavor to practice good governance where government officials will be watchful in doing their responsibilities because there is an increase in the assurance that someone will report them in the event of their noncompliance in their duties and in their commission of fraud and corruption.

The CPA can also be viewed as an ethical movement on the part of COA and the government because of its prospect of considering every facet of an ethical act that it is of moral and global standard.