Deputy ombudsmen seen to be deployed in corruption-laden agencies in September
MANILA, Philippines — Prosecutors and auditors to serve as deputy ombudsmen may be deployed to government agencies this month, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.
This is in line with a memorandum among the Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit and Department of Justice to eradicate corruption in government agencies.
“The implementation of the OMB-COA-DOJ memorandum of agreement on the deployment of prosecutors and auditors as deputy ombudsmen in various agencies is targeted to start in September,” Guevarra said.
The signing of the agreement has been delayed to the lockdown restrictions.
Guevarra explained they will no longer proceed with the planned signing ceremony, but instead circulate the memorandum to principal parties for individual signing this week.
The DOJ is leading an inter-agency task force tasked to probe the “entire government” of corruption. The panel was created through President Rodrigo Duterte’s memorandum in October 2020, and will remain in effect until June 30, 2022.
The panel has since received hundreds of reports from the public and complaints and complaints have been forwarded to concerned agencies or the Office of the Ombudsman.
But will COA reports that report discrepancies and unused funds be used as starting points for investigation by deputy ombudsmen?
Guevarra said COA reports “will indeed provide a good starting point,” but noted that they “will take cue from the Ombudsman.”
“For now, we’ll let the government agencies called out by the CoA to comply with the latter’s recommendations, rectify any deficiencies found in their accounting records, and explain other audit observations made by the CoA on the use of government funds,” the DOJ chief also said.
The COA earlier in August flagged P67-billion deficiencies in COVID-19 response at the Department of Health. Guevarra previously said the DOH has an opportunity to refute findings and explain.
In cases of failure to give a justified explanation, government agencies and their officials may be accused of “more serious violations of law, such as for breach of anti-graft and government procurement laws, in which case the TFAC will step in,” he earlier said.
The Office of the Ombudsman has also said they will not take action on the COA report on DOH’s utilization of its 2020 budget and will wait “the completion of the auditing process as the agency is given the opportunity to ensure full implementation of all audit recommendations to improve the financial and operation efficiency of the DOH.”
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