The Makati City government has again gained the highest audit rating from the Commission on Audit (COA) for its 2019 financial statements.
Makati Mayor Abigail Binay said Friday that Makati has reached the unprecedented “three-peat” achievement for a local government unit (LGU).
“I’m heartened by these positive developments as the city grapples with the pandemic. We’re thankful for meeting COA’s stringent standards for the third straight year,” Binay said in a Facebook post.
She said she was “extremely delighted” by COA’s unmodified opinion on the Makati LGU reaching the highest audit rating rendered by the state auditor who concluded that the city’s financial statements were “presented fairly and in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.”
The city government received the good news through a letter dated July 6 signed by COA director Omar Roque.
“Makati now holds the record of earning COA’s highest audit rating for three consecutive years,” Binay said.
Meanwhile, City Treasurer Jesusa Cuneta reported that business tax collections jumped 4 percent to PHP6.69 billion in June from PHP6.42 billion in the same month last year, while revenue from real property tax increased by 3 percent from PHP4.58 billion to PHP4.72 billion in the same period.
The Makati government has also attained 73 percent of its 2020 revenue target with a total of PHP12.98 billion in actual collections, while the recorded target revenue collection for the year is PHP17.76 billion.
Binay said she was “pleasantly surprised” to learn that the city achieved a 4 percent year-on-year gain in revenue collections for the first half of 2020 amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis.
“We hope to sustain the upward trend for our income in the coming months,” she said, citing the city’s reforms and innovation to implement transparent and efficient government operations.
Binay said the city government continues to pursue a “no-contact” policy to eliminate fixers and curtail corruption, particularly in the processing of business permits. (PNA)
