Value-added auditing

Greg Navarro received an offer to join Punongbayan & Araullo over lunch and cigars with Ben Punongbayan. "I didn’t know Ben personally. I just knew him as a guy who was considered a cabo bastonero at SGV," he said.

By the time the Punongbayan paid the bill, Navarro had agreed to join the one-year-old auditing firm. That was in 1989.

"One of my first assignments was to do a feasibility study on whether an upscale mall would work or sell in Divisoria. The first thing I did was to buy a book on how to do a feasibility study," he said.

Navarro and his team went to Divisoria and began asking vendors for the primary data they needed. "We were met with skepticism and blank stares. Nobody wanted to believe we were doing a legitimate study. Some of them even suspected we were trying to steal their trade secrets," he said.

Unfazed, Navarro asked a contact at the Manila City Hall to introduce his team to the market inspectors assigned to Divisoria. Based on the data gathered, P&A gave the thumbs up to the viability of Tutuban Mall.

"That mall has totally changed people’s concept of Divisoria as a shopping place and we are proud we were part of its birth. We are even more happy to see the mall thriving," he said.

Pro-active

Today, Navarro is partner and head of the assurance and advisory business services division at P&A.

"Our people have always defined who and what P&A is all about. We get the right people and provide them with the best tools, technology and training to equip them to become responsive to our clients. They are competent, reliable and efficient. The result is excellence and quality," he said.

Navarro is up there among the people who abide by the auditing firm’s philosophy of responsiveness and proactivity.

Take the case of a foreigner-client who asked that he be provided with a doctoral prescription for a particular drug he needed. The prescription turned out to be viagra.

"I got the prescription but I made sure it was in his name, not mine," he said.

And then, there are clients who know about Navarro’s engineering background and ask his advice on floor plans and office designs rather than on their finances.

"Early on, we realized that our clients’ needs go beyond an opinion on their financial statements," said Navarro. "Our audit approach is designed to provide a comprehensive audit option, on the one hand, and to address the relevant aspects of our client’s business, on the other hand. It nurtures a value-added relationship and provides a customized program of audit procedures for areas that signal vulnerability for the client."

Background

Navarro learned early that a company’s most important asset is its people. He was 23 when Atlantic Gulf &Pacific Co. of Manila, Inc. placed him on top of its Middle East financial and administrative functions. The job made him responsible for over 3,000 overseas Filipino workers.

"No manager would be able to do a competent and efficient job without a staff that is inspired and motivated. That means providing employees with what they need to get their work done," he said.

For Navarro, the real challenge of managing his people did not arise from the work environment in the Middle East but in the home environment in the Philippines.

"There were several times when I had to ask someone in the Philippines to investigate a rumor about a wayward wife or a child in trouble or a serious accident or sickness in the family. I had no choice because the workers could not work or would be so distracted they were likely to cause accidents on the jobsite," he said.

In the course of investigating extramarital affairs, Navarro stumbled upon something else: that most OFWs were going home without any money in their pockets. Relatives would ask nonstop for money–to renovate the house or buy a jeep or a tricycle or for tuition. When the OFWs came home, they inevitably discovered the money they saved up for either went to pay for some unnecessary frill or even to pay off gambling debts.

It was Navarro who recommended the setting aside of some of the OFWs’ wages, which was placed in a separate savings account and kept secret from the OFW’s family. Since withdrawals could only be made with Navarro’s approval and countersignature, the OFW was able to save money when his work contract ended.

"Working with OFWs helped me develop a sense of empathy–of where they’re coming from," said Navarro. "It’s tough to work abroad. You have to admire the way we Filipinos handle the physical difficulty, the separation, homesickness and the emotional baggage when working away from family and country."

In the last 13 years, Navarro has put to good use such empathy in dealing with P&A’s employees as well as clients.