Toward more informative and transparent auditor’s reports

 Economy
Nov 132016
 

Come 2017, users and readers of the auditor’s report on 2016 financial statements should expect dramatic and ground-breaking changes. The Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy in its Resolution No. 125, Series of 2016 has approved and adopted new auditor’s reporting standards, which were based on updated new international auditor reporting standards. These new standards will be effective for audits of financial statements for periods ending on or after Dec. 15, 2016, the same effective date as the new international standards. Accordingly, financial statements for the year ending Dec. 31, 2016, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017, will have to be based on these new standards.

Comelec revises protest rules, allows ballot images as evidence

 News
Jun 202013
 
Comelec revises protest rules, allows ballot images as evidence

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has revised its rules on protest cases to allow the using of ballot images as primary evidence. Poll chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Thursday this would be cheaper than using the paper ballots—which will have to be shipped from the protested precincts and stored at the Comelec warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna—for manual recount. “Ang matagal noon ‘yung retrieval of ballot boxes and then ang storage,” Brillantes said. “Ngayon you can dispense from all these by simply choosing decryption. You now waive the physical examination of the ballot.” The Comelec so far has received 69 poll cases in connection with the May 13 midterm elections. Every ballot-reading Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine has a removable storage device that stores an image of every ballot inserted by the voters. According to Resolution No. 9720, which amends Resolution No. 8804, “the protestant may… waive the recount of the paper ballots and instead resort to either the decryption and recount of the ballot images.” The protested and counter-protested precincts should be at most 20 percent of total number of precincts “to best illustrate the merits of the protest,” the amended resolution states. Meanwhile, another option for protestants is to “read the rejected ballots only of the entire protested or counter-protested precincts,” the Comelec’s new rules said. The rejected ballots, stored in envelopes after being spoiled, do not have PCOS images. “It’s very possible that these rejected ballots can determine the intent of the voter,” Brillantes said.    For Read More …

Comelec wants allowable poll expenses pegged on 'economic factors'

 News
Jun 102013
 
Comelec wants allowable poll expenses pegged on 'economic factors'

The allowable poll expenses limit may soon be pegged on “economic factors” such as the inflation rate and consumer price index (CPI), a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official said on Monday. This could be possible if the 16th Congress approves a bill amending the Omnibus Election Code that the Comelec would endorse, according to poll commissioner Christian Robert Lim. The poll official said the commission has proposed to form a regional tripartite body with officials from the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Trade and Industry that would determine the allowable election expense per voter. “Every elections, there would be a regional tripartite board na magde-determine using the CPI magkano [ang expense limit]. Mataas ba ang inflation kaya kailangang itaas din namin para realistic?” explained Lim. The reform aims to motivate candidates to be truthful in their statements of contributions and expenditures, he added. “More often than not, candidates are going to spend more. So more likely they would not declare. So we want them to be truthful in their declaration,” Lim said. As of now, the Comelec under its Resolution No. 9476 limits presidential and vice presidential candidates to P10 for every registered voter, candidates with political parties to P3 per voter, and independent candidates to P5 per voter. According to the National Statistics Office, the CPI measures the “changes in the price level of goods and services that most people buy for their day-to-day consumption.” Meanwhile, inflation is the change in price level over a Read More …