Ambassador Inaugurates Renovated Bureau of Internal Revenue Lab and Training Facility

Ambassador Thomas and BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares lead the inauguration of the newly-renovated Computer-Assisted Audit Tools and Techniques (CAATTs) Laboratory and Training Room of the BIR on July 27, 2012.

The event was also graced by Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, MCC Resident Country Director Matthew L. Bohn and Managing Director and CEO of the Millennium Challenge Account-Philippine (MCA-P) Ma. Victoria Añonuevo.

Manila, July 27, 2012 --  Ambassador Thomas led the inauguration  of a newly-renovated Computer-Assisted Auditing Tools and Techniques (CAATTs) Laboratory and Training Room at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) together with Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto, Resident Country Director Matt Bohn of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and Managing Director and CEO Marivic Añonuevo of Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P).  This renovation was part of the U.S. government’s $434 million MCC grant to reduce poverty and promote economic growth in the Philippines and represents a milestone achieved in the United States and Philippine’s Partnership for Growth.

The newly renovated Laboratory and Training Room are part of an Automated Audit Tools sub-activity under the five-year Revenue Administration Reform Project (RARP) funded by the U.S. Government’s MCC and supervised by MCA-P.  The other components of RARP include the implementation of the Electronic Tax Information System, a Public Awareness Campaign, and provision of tools to the Department of Finance to reduce corruption in customs and revenue collection.

MCA-P funded the renovation of the CAATTs Laboratory and the Training Room and the provision of computers, audit software, and other equipment.  BIR uses audit software as a tool to conduct audits, using a laboratory model to ensure security. The training room is intended to expand the skills of revenue officers on computer-assisted audits.

The project is expected to help BIR come up with a more comprehensive database that can be used for tax collection and to support other BIR activities such as benchmarking, industry audit, and transfer pricing. This will be done through audit of interrelated transactions and third party verification. All of these will eventually lead to increased revenue collection.