IPOPHL Keeps Up With Highest Marks In Eight Years
17 May 2021
For its financial records last year, the Commission on Audit (COA) gave the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) a "unqualified/unmodified opinion", the highest auditing mark that can only be earned if an entity's financial accounts are free of "relevant misstatements."
According to the COA's Independent Auditor's (IA) Report for IPOPHL for fiscal year 2020, the office's financial statements "reflect equally, in all relevant respects," that its financial status, financial results, cash flows, adjustments in net assets/equity, analysis of budget and real sums for the year, and notes to financial statements are in compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards.
"Our continued receipt of COA's unqualified opinion is testament to IPOPHL's honesty and determination to maintain openness and responsibility in all our financial operations, including in extraordinary times like a pandemic," said IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba, adding that the 2020 IA results mark IPOPHL's eighth year of receiving the "unqualified/unmodified opinion" ranking.
“As COVID-19 put on hold many public and private sector activities ventures, IPOPHL saw this as an opportunity to maximize the digital environment, where we were able to meet a larger audience at a lower rate, keeping the pandemic from derailing our momentum in furthering our mandate,” Barba said.
“Going forward, we plan to make good use of our budget, particularly as we expand our efforts to assist companies, inventors, and developers in recovering through the preservation of their intellectual property rights,” he said.
The annual report conducted by the COA guarantees that government offices follow the highest level of openness, integrity, and good governance. The audit follows the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions, which are the global auditing standards for public-sector organisations.
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