United States Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas Jr. yesterday  led the inauguration of the newly-renovated Computer-Assisted Auditing Tools and Techniques (CAATTs) Laboratory and Training Room of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Thomas made the gesture together with Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto Henares, resident country director Matthew Bohn of Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), and managing director and CEO Ma. Victoria Añonuevo of Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P).
The renovation was part of the US government’s $434 million MCC grant to reduce poverty and promote economic growth in the Philippines.
The newly renovated Laboratory and Training Rooms are part of an Automated Audit Tools sub-activity under the five-year Revenue Administration Reform Project (RARP) funded by the US government’s MCC and supervised by MCA-P.
The other components of RARP include the implementation of the Electronics Tax Information System, a Public Awareness Campaign, and provision of tools to the Department of Finance to reduce corruption in customs and revenue collection.
MCC thru MCA-P funded the renovation of the CAATTs Laboratory and 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 to address the issue of transfer pricing.
The audit software shall be used for audit of interrelated transactions and third party verification, which will eventually lead to increased revenue collection.