Independence of General Auditing Office

June 18, 1960

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 2716

AN ACT TO INSURE THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE GENERAL AUDITING OFFICE

SECTION 1. The appointments of the subordinate officials and employees of the General Auditing Office, including the auditing personnel in provinces, cities, government-owned or controlled corporations, or other self-governing board, commission or agency of the Government, shall be made by the Auditor General in accordance with the Civil Service Law shall not be subject to the approval or review of any other official, board, commission or executive office as a prerequisite for the payment of their salaries: Provided, That such appointments shall be submitted to the Bureau of Civil Service for attestation, except those extended to auditing personnel assigned to government-owned or controlled corporations where the Civil Service Law is not made applicable to their officers and employees by express provisions of their respective charters.

SECTION 2. The request for appropriations for the annual operating expenses of the General Auditing Office shall be submitted by the Auditor General to the Budget Commissioner on or before a date to be determined by the latter. Such requests for appropriations shall be included by the Budget Commissioner without alteration, reduction or increase in the Budget which he recommends to the President for submission to Congress in accordance with subsection (1), Section nineteen Article VI, of the Constitution: Provided, That the provisions of Republic Act Numbered Nine hundred ninety-two, as amended, or any other laws relating to the allotment systems shall not apply to appropriations or any other moneys made available to the General Auditing Office.

SECTION 3. Republic Act Numbered Nine hundred ninety-seven, as amended, and the reorganization plans and implementing orders issued in pursuance thereof, including Reorganization Plans Numbered 1-A and 2-A, not being applicable to the General Auditing Office, that portion of the Salary Standardization Fund authorized in the annual General Appropriations Act for the fiscal year nineteen hundred sixty-nineteen hundred sixty-one, and for every fiscal year thereafter, intended for the General Auditing Office, is transferred to the said Office and shall form part of its regular appropriations.

SECTION 4. All laws, rules, orders or regulations, or parts thereof which are or may be in conflict with the provisions of this Act are repealed or amended accordingly.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 18, 1960

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 57, No. 2, p. 234 on January 9, 1961