RAISE OMBUDSMAN, COA BUDGETS - CASTELO Rep. Winston “Winnie” Castelo (Liberal Party, 2nd District of Quezon City) today batted for an increase in the budgetary allocations of the Office of the Ombudsman and Commission on Audit, saying that the empowerment of the two agencies is an integral part of an anticorruption agenda. In a statement, Castelo also batted for the following to enhance the anticorruption agenda of the Aquino government: · enhanced lifestyle check of public officials; · enactment of the proposed Whistleblowers’ Protection Act of 2013; · empowerment of the private sector to join in the anticorruption program; and · development of an anticorruption mass culture. Because of the public outrage on the P10 billion pork barrel scam, Castelo said the Aquino government has no choice but to intensify its anticorruption agenda to regain the people’s trust and confidence on the country’s major institutions, particularly Congress. As the first initiative, Castelo said the budgetary outlays for the Office of the Ombudsman and COA to enable the two agencies to put firmly in place its anticorruption programs and strengthen its mechanism against erring public officials. The budget of the Office of the Ombudsman, for instance should be raised to at least one percent of the national budget from the present 0.7 percent, saying the budget raise would enable this office to hire new lawyers, pursue its zero backlog program, and lead the anticorruption campaign in the bureaucracy. Increasing the COA budget to a substantial level, according to Castelo, would enable the state agency to conduct more special audits of select government agencies and educate the people manning the bureaucracy about the myriad of auditing rules and procedures to raise their anticorruption consciousness. “The Office of the Ombudsman and Commission Audit are led by two competent and driven women, whose integrity is beyond any shadow of doubt. Let’s support them while they are around so that they could put all those programs in their place before their tenures end,” Castelo said referring to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and COA chair Grace Pulido-Tan. While describing the current anticorruption campaign as the “centerpiece program” of the Aquino administration, Castelo said “a different, albeit special, kind of political will “ to rid the government of corrupt elements and lead in the post-pork barrel scam renewal. Also, the success of this anticorruption program would depend on the complete cooperation of the public and private sectors since it requires the full involvement of the private sector, which includes the Church, civil society, business community, the academe, and even the youth and young professionals, who have bigger stake in the nation’s future. “Raising it to at least one percent of the national budget would signal the serious policy shift to combat corruption,” Castelo said. “In contrast, the government loses at least 20 percent of the national budget to corruption.” Because of its limited budget, the Office of the Ombudsman could hardly build up cases and prosecute them, as shown by its batting average of winning only 7% or less of all lawsuits it has filed in court is hardly satisfying, Castelo said. The Office of the Ombudsman has hardly run after any other big fish, making corruption a “high yield, but low risk” activity in the country, Castelo said. Castelo said a vigorous, sustained, and continuous lifestyle check of public officials would highlight the glaring differences between their lifestyle and their reported statement of assets and liabilities, establishing initial proofs of corruption. The proposed enactment of the Whistlebowers’ Protection Law would elevate to state policy the protection to people, who would spill the beans on public officials, who have committed – or about to commit – corrupt activities, Castelo said. “A whistleblowing policy becomes necessary for the detection and prosecution even of well-hidden anomalous transactions,” Castelo said. #
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 09:49:19 +0000
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