PAGC: P1-billion fund versus graft records gains

MANILA, Philippines - The P1-billion fund allotted by the government for various anti-corruption projects has registered financial and economic gains.

The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC), the fund’s administrator and lead implementing agency, said the results of the project proved that corruption could indeed make the government incur huge losses such that preventing and minimizing it would easily accrue to billions of pesos worth of savings, revenues and many other socio-economic benefits.

PAGC chief Secretary Constancia de Guzman said such benefits have started mounting since 2007 when the fund was created and made available to specific agencies of the executive department.

The recipients of the fund, according to De Guzman, were the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, P407 million; Bureau of Internal Revenue, P153 million; Bureau of Customs, P105 million; Presidential Council on Values Formation, P60.5 million; and Philippine National Police, P37 million.

The balance of P230 million went to the rollout of the Integrity Development Action Plan (IDAP) for other national government agencies and local government units through the regional development councils.

The plan includes values formation, Code of Conduct, Graduate Certificate Course in Corruption Prevention (GCCCP), and the establishment, expansion and operation of the PNP’s School for Values and Leadership, among other measures.

The GCCCP is a project of the PAGC in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development and the Development Academy of the Philippines aimed at providing professionals with the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude to implement corruption prevention reforms in their respective government agencies.