THE DEPARTMENT of Education thanked the Commission on Audit for acknowledging the improved compliance of the department with accounting standards.

State auditors noted DepEd’s “significant improvement” in its 2020 Consolidated Annual Audit Report.

The commission recently reviewed the department’s financial and operational account covering 45,000 schools, 214 school division offices and regional offices, excluding the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Central Office in Pasig City.

“Compared to the previous year, DepEd performed significantly better and was able to satisfactorily comply with the accounting standards set by the Commission, which is the basis of the CAAR. This, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic starting SY 2020,” DepEd said.

“Based on this year’s audit report, the Department has delivered an increase in the implementation of the compliance report through the substantial decrease in the misstatements noted by the Commission,” it added.

DepEd clarified that the “misstatements” stated in the CAAR pertain to the difference between the actual items by the Management and those required by the accounting standards of COA.

It said that the nature of the observation issued by COA sought “to correct deficiencies and improve the management of its budget through their recommendation.”

“Those noted by the Commission were mainly identified as recording errors which are now being rectified by DepEd following the instructions/recommendations of the auditing agency,” DepEd said.

“DepEd wishes to emphasize that none of the initial findings pertained to corruption, malversation of public funds, negligence, or the betrayal of public trust,” it added.