Short answer. Two months. Under Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Republic Act No. 10951, a public officer who fails to render accounts to the Commission on Audit within two months after those accounts are due commits a crime and faces imprisonment or a fine — or both.
What the law says
Any public officer, whether in the service or separated therefrom by resignation or any other cause, who is required by law or regulation to render account to the Commission on Audit, or to a provincial auditor and who fails to do so for a period of two (2) months after such accounts should be rendered shall be punished by prisión correccional in its minimum period, or by a fine ranging from Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000) to One million two hundred thousand pesos (₱1,200,000), or both.
Revised Penal Code, Article 218 — Failure To Render Accounts. Read the full provision →
The two-month threshold under Article 218
Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code makes the failure to render accounts a criminal offense once the delay reaches two months: "Any public officer, whether in the service or separated therefrom by resignation or any other cause, who is required by law or regulation to render account to the Commission on Audit, or to a provincial auditor and who fails to do so for a period of two (2) months after such accounts should be rendered shall be punished by prisión correccional in its minimum period, or by a fine ranging from Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000) to One million two hundred thousand pesos (₱1,200,000), or both." The offense is complete once the two-month window expires without the required submission.
Who the provision covers
The article applies to any public officer legally obligated to render accounts to the Commission on Audit or a provincial auditor. Critically, this includes officers who have already left government service — whether by resignation or any other cause. Separation from office does not extinguish the accountability obligation for the period of service. A former officer who failed to settle accounts before leaving, and who then lets two months pass, is just as exposed under Article 218 as one who is still in active service.
The penalties — amended amounts apply
The current penalties are those set by Republic Act No. 10951, which amended the monetary figures throughout the Revised Penal Code in 2017. Under the amended text, conviction may result in imprisonment at the minimum period of prision correccional, a fine between ₱40,000 and ₱1,200,000, or both. Older printed copies of the Code still carry the 1930-era amounts, which are far lower. Any source quoting fines in the thousands, rather than in the forty-to-one-million-peso range, is reprinting the superseded version — not the law as it stands today.
What the obligation requires in practice
The duty to render accounts is set by law or regulation applicable to the specific office or position. Not every public employee has the same accounting timeline — the frequency and form of account submissions depend on the applicable rules governing that officer's funds or property. What Article 218 adds is a criminal backstop: regardless of the specific schedule, once two months have elapsed beyond the point when accounts were due and none have been filed, the failure crosses from an administrative lapse into a criminal offense. The officer cannot avoid liability by arguing that the accounting process was complex or that there were practical difficulties — the clock runs from when the accounts were due.