In my book, there are only three government agencies whose pronouncements are always what newspaper editors call “a good copy” – the Commission on Audit (COA), the Ombudsman, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

No. 1 is COA. To me, it is a vigilant government agency that goes after erring bureaucracies. Readers are alerted that when newspapers print its media statements, the essence guarantees an interesting reading.

I will leave my dissertations on the Ombudsman and the BIR in future issues.

To some, the job of the state auditing agency is a bore. It is all about numbers and figures.

On the other hand, those numeric symbols are what make COA a crucial probing government office. Why?

When auditors don’t agree with the numbers and figures cited in reports of government offices under audit, chances are there are shenanigans in the offing.

But there are a number of personalities in the private and government sectors who are not members of the COA Fans Club.

For some reasons, they call the agency “the attack dog” of the administration. On the contrary, they are unleashed only on government entities out to do some kind of hanky-panky maneuvers – the kind that wanders off “the straight path” of the P-Noy governance campaign.

Last week a senator hurled a veiled threat to impeach COA officials over what he thought were unfounded allegations that he and two other solons donated millions of their PDAF budgets to a non-existent NGO.

Ironically, it was also in the same week that the audit body made front-page headlines again. One newspaper bannered: “PCSO gave out R302.8 million bonuses.”

The  statement as quoted by the daily: “The COA said the audit of the fund revealed the 2011 grant of grocery and Christmas assistance, as well as rice and (lotto) draw allowances and medicines … was contrary to COA Circular No. 85-55-A.’”

In my February 22 column, titled Straight Path, I mentioned PCSO’s  “overpaying” its board members and officials almost P10 million in bonuses last December, 2011. (Culled from the paper’s front-page story of February 17, 2013)

The chairman of PCSO wrote an explanation of the allowances and the ‘Bulletin’ published it in full. A similar clarifying statement issued by the president of the agency’s employees union, likewise, found print in this paper.

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GLENDA R. BARRETO, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARDEE. The 5th Filipiniana Entrepreneurship Summit of 2013 has awarded Glenda R. Barreto one of the 15 prominent women entrepreneurs during its awarding night at the World Trade Center March 1. The awardees came from various fields of endeavor.

Glenda’s Via Mare chain of restaurants was cited “for creating a niche in the food industry that elevated Filipino cuisine as a driving concept for the past 40 years.”

A native of Calbayog City, Glenda is a rare entrepreneur coming from Region 8 who has achieved an iconic reputation in domestic and international halls of fame.

She also happens to be my cousin. Congratulations, atud!

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MB’S ‘POLLS’ DAILY SUPPLEMENT. The reading public has favorably taken notice of the daily handy, four-page supplement in the Manila Bulletin called “POLLS.” The tabloid-size loose-leaf insert compiles election-related information for the voting public – election laws, candidates’ qualifications and their advocacies in serial form, partylist contenders, bits of election history, human-interest photos laden with amusing messages on e-pal materials.

This periodical containing easy-to-understand news and features is certainly a laudable public service of the Bulletin,  now one step ahead of its competitors in providing readers informative data on the coming May polls.