PAGC to hire accountants, engineers too

The undermanned Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) will no longer be limiting its manpower to lawyers, but will now be opening its doors to auditors, accountants, law graduates or even engineers, in its effort to nip bureaucratic corruption in the bud.

"We’re scouting. The investigators don’t necessarily be members of the Bar. They can be accountants, auditors or engineers because there are cases related to construction. We have to bring in expertise," said new PAGC chairman Constancia de Guzman.

If PAGC is to be on a par with Hong Kong’s International Commission Against Corruption, then its work must not be focused on investigating corruption alone, but also on "crime prevention," which is part of the three-pronged PAGC approach (the two others are investigation and education).

"We should make sure (the PAGC) is more responsive to the needs of the people," said De Guzman, a former defense undersecretary.

She stressed the need for what she termed as "pre-audit," where every single document received by an office is checked for hidden anomalies.

"We’re focused on the capability or potential auditing type of thing. It’s a very helpful tool. Internal auditors do it professionally. We should be heavy on the case buildup. We plan to plug the leakages in the system. The PAGC will be heavy on prevention," she said.

De Guzman, who worked with President Arroyo when she was still with the Department of Trade and Industry in the early 1990s, said, "The internal auditing style, if implemented properly, will be the answer to this corruption problem."

She noted that it was Mrs. Arroyo’s father, the late former President Diosdado Macapa—gal, who signed the Internal Auditing Act of the Philippines in 1963.

"It’s a case of the father having started it and the daughter implementing it. This team of internal auditors will be a multi-disciplinary team," she said, adding that such a policy would deter crime since malfeasance is monitored every step of the way.

The PAGC has 74 plantilla positions, and it needs at least 48 investigators to beef up its anti-corruption drive.

The agency is under the Office of the President and is mandated to investigate irregularities by government officials, including presidential appointees.

At present, the PAGC has 54 employees, including 11 investigators, only four of whom are lawyers and the rest administrative staff.

De Guzman, who is not a lawyer, said she plans to have an 80-20 percent investigator-staffer ratio.

She disclosed plans to put up an Internet portal and a call center and assign a cellular phone number where citizens can send in their complaints or information on grafters.

"Through these, we can immediately address the concerns of anyone," she said. "There are so many things we want to do."