Undeterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau Regional Office No. XIII continued to pursue learning with the conduct of a Seminar/Webinar-Workshop on Accounting for Non-Accountants on June 26, 2020 at the MGB RO No. XIII Training Center in Surigao City and via Zoom Platform to comply with the current health protocol of social distancing.

Atty. Jeffrey P. Galido, CPA, Attorney III of MGB RO No. XIII, served as the Resource Speaker of the said activity that was participated by 15 physical and 34 web-based attendees from MGB RO No. XIII and MGB Central Office particularly the Mining Tenement Management Division headed by its Division Chief, Engr. Larry M. Heradez and his technical staff.

The workshop aimed to capacitate the MGB technical personnel/evaluators to become more effective in carrying out the implementation of the standard evaluation procedures under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Memorandum Order No. 2004-10 in re: “Procedural Guidelines in the Evaluation of Mining Project Feasibility Studies for the Approval of Declaration of Mining Feasibility and Applications for Mineral Processing Permits and Mineral Agreements in the Development or Operating Period” and to determine whether or not a certain mining project is economically feasible as a business investment and if the government can have an acceptable and fair share in the income of such mining project within a specified period.

The Basic Principles of Accounting was discussed at the workshop to provide comprehensive understanding of how to undertake a financial analysis using the projected Financial Statement of a proposed mining project, which is an important aspect in the evaluation of the Feasibility Studies in terms of Return of Investment, hurdle rate, discounted cash flow, Rate of Return and payback period, including sensitivity analysis.

Further, the discussion regarding Audited Financial Statement and General Information Sheet enabled the technical personnel to acquire additional knowledge in effectively monitoring existing Mining Contractors/Permittees/Permit Holders in terms of their financial performance/standing, implementation of good corporate governance, and compliances with the Bureau of Internal Revenue requirement/s, in the conduct of its mining operations, which is among the vital conditions in the issued Mining Contracts/Permits which eventually determine the level of compliance of each Mining Contractor/Permittee/Permit Holder, that is subjected to a rating system pursuant to MGB Memorandum Circular No. 2018-02 in re: “Guidelines for Compliance Monitoring and Rating/Scorecard of Mining Permits/Contracts”.

Towards the end of the workshop, Regional Director Glenn Marcelo C. Noble supplemented the discussion with a lecture on Engineering Economy that aids in the effective implementation of the standard evaluation procedures such as the concept of investment and profit, assets and liabilities, depreciation and depletion, and net present worth method.