A ranking National Unity Party (NUP) official has thrown his support behind the proposal of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to create a new public accounts and audit committee in the House of Representatives whose primary task is to monitor and oversee the disbursement of public funds.

Davao City Representative Karlo Alexei Nograles said the committee will promote accountability and transparency in government spending.  

"We support the idea of Speaker Belmonte to create a new Committee on Public Accounts and Audit in Congress to scrutinize, monitor and investigate all accounts of all government agencies, local government units, GOCCs (government-owned and -controlled corporations)  and other government instrumentalities to ensure that the money appropriated by the Congress is actually spent and used according to the intent of the legislators,” said Nograles, the NUP vice president for internal affairs.

“It will keep everybody on their toes,” he added.

In his remarks during the opening of the 16th Congress, Belmonte urged the House Committee on Rules "to study the creation of a public accounts and audit committee amid scandals involving Congress over the alleged pillaging of public funds."



Belmonte, who is also the honorary chairperson of the NUP,  said that the envisioned committee would also "undertake legislative actions to improve transparency of government operations."

Nograles said Belmonte’s proposal is timely in the light of recent controversies involving Malacanang’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

The new panel could be patterned after the Public Accounts Committee of the British House of Commons, which is headed by the opposition, Nograles noted.

Nograles made it clear, though,  that the proposed House audit committee should have jurisdiction over the Commission on Audit (COA) in relation to its specific mandate of exercising its audit functions.

Similar congressional committees also have jurisdiction over the Commission on Elections and the Civil Service Commission, “so I think it is but proper that we have a committee that oversees the COA as well," he said.