DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
P R E S S  R E L E A S E
www.dfa.gov.ph                                                                             2330 Roxas Blvd., Pasay City, Philippines                                                                        Tel. No. 834-4000 
SFA-AGR-390-07                                                                                                                                                           28 May 2007

Philippine Commission on Audit appointed FAO External Auditor  

28 May 2007 — Philippine Ambassador to Italy and Permanent Representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Philippe J. Lhuillier reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Philippine Commission on Audit (COA) has been appointed External Auditor of the Rome-based FAO for the period 2008 to 2011.  

The appointment was declared during the 118th Session of the Finance Committee of the FAO held on 18 May 2007.  The members of the Finance Committee are Pakistan (Chair), Cote d'lvoire, Denmark , Germany , Italy , Japan , Paraguay , Peru , Qatar , the United States of America , and Zimbabwe .  

Ambassador Lhuillier said, “COA's victory is a recognition of its expertise as an external auditor of the United Nations system.  We do have world class auditing services and I believe that this should be recognized.  I think what clinched the award for the COA was their risk-based approach to auditing as well as its value for money audit.”  

Ambassador Lhuillier led the five-month campaign to have the COA appointed as the FAO's external auditor.  The selection process involved the submission of an external auditing proposal package, which the COA presented last December 2006.  Six countries submitted proposals, namely the Philippines , Ghana , Zimbabwe , Tanzania , Zambia , and incumbent external auditor India .  Only the Philippines and India made it to the short list.  

The second step was the oral presentation done by COA Chairman Guillermo Carague, supported by COA Commissioner Juanito Espino Jr., Associate Commissioner Emma Espina, and Resident Auditor of the Department of Agriculture Flerida Jimenez.  The oral presentation took one hour and another hour for questions and answers from the Finance Committee.  

The third step of the appointment process will be the formal declaration to be made by the FAO Council on its 132nd session in June 2007. Ambassador Lhuillier said that this will simply be a formality since the Finance Committee will only make one recommendation.  

This will be the first time that the COA will serve as FAO's external auditor, although the COA had been serving as external auditors to the United Nations system for the past 16 years.  END

/jay

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