SEOUL, 24 June 2014 – The head of the Commission of Audit (COA), one of the lead government agencies investigating official graft and corruption, told fellow civil servants on Tuesday, 24 June 2014, that the tough and comprehensive scrutiny her office puts fellow public officials under is now the “new normal”.

“I’ll make no bones about it: this is now the new normal,” COA Chair Atty. Grace Pulido-Tan said about strict and thorough checks COA demands of all government agencies under the principle of open, transparent and accountable governance. “But if everything is up to spec, there should be no anxiety or source of stress over it.” While government auditors fulfilling their mandate are doing simply “what should have been done a while back”, Chair Pulido-Tan said heads of agencies are taking more notice of their work. Hopefully, she says, COA will effect enough change in public service so that the new ways will continue after her term ends in 2016. She informed Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Raul S. Hernandez, who welcomed her to the Embassy’s Multipurpose Hall, that the Commission will undertake its biannual audits later in the year or in 2015. . The COA Chairperson visited the Embassy in Seoul after participating at the UN Service Forum Day and Awards Ceremony in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province on 23-24 June 2014, which was also attended by Ambassador Hernandez. Her presentation on “Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA): How Citizen Participation can enhance value for money audit in the Philippines” discussed the implementation of the CPA project starting November 2013. Atty. Pulido-Tan heads one of the eight agencies in the Inter-Agency Coordinating Council (IAGCC) investigating the alleged pork barrel scam. COA, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice have received considerable media and public attention since they are headed by female Cabinet-level secretaries with strong personalities. COA Chair Pulido-Tan is not the first among these three anti-corruption agency heads to visit Seoul. In September 2013, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales held an open forum at the Embassy on the pork barrel scam scandal for members of the Filipino community in Korea.