Finance chief wants ‘big fish’ catch for PACC

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Finance (DOF) has urged the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) to focus its investigations on “big fish” involved in anomalous government contracts to make prudent use of its limited time and resources in the remaining half of the Duterte administration.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez made the recommendation during a meeting with PACC chairman Dante Jimenez, also the founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC).

“We have limited amount of time. I’m not saying we should not go after the small ones, but if you only have so much time, we better go after the big ones because of its many effects on the economy,” Dominguez told Jimenez.

“Focus on the big target, focus on the big things. We cannot do everything. Just focus on the big ones and try to really catch them,” he said.

In addition, Dominguez said catching big players involved in anomalous schemes would send a strong message to small-time crooks that the government is serious and relentless in its campaign against corruption.

Jimenez, for his part, welcomed the finance chief’s suggestions.

“I think that’s a very good input for us now so that in the coming days, we will be studying all these things in our en banc meeting,” Jimenez said.

However, Dominguez also cautioned PACC that the most difficult part of the job would be to outsmart big-time crooks as they use “devious” ways to hide their activities.

“Those guys who bribe people to look the other way, who give them nice contracts, who give them concessions for many, many years, who let them make money for no risk. That’s a big, big corruption crime. But you have to be really be very smart, you have to be smarter than them to catch them because it’s white-collar crime,” Dominguez said.

He said corruption in the bureaucracy emanates from three instances: when collecting taxes and other revenues; when spending public funds; and when public officials and employees approve projects that are grossly disadvantageous to the government, but highly beneficial to certain people.

To help the PACC in its efforts to catch big fish, Dominguez has ordered all DOF offices and attached agencies to coordinate with the agency.

He said the DOF has its Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS), a unit which conducts lifestyle checks on employees of the DOF and its attached agencies to help curb corruption.

Other DOF-attached agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Bureau of Customs (BOC), Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) and the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BGLF) also have their respective internal affairs units.

Dominguez said the PACC could coordinate with Finance Undersecretary for legal affairs Bayani Agabin, who oversees the RIPS, as well as the heads of other DOF attached agencies.

“We’ll give you a full list with the names of the people (in the DOF and its attached agencies) involved in your type of work so that we can have close coordination,” Dominguez said.

The PACC was created by President Duterte in 2017 through Executive Order 43.  It has the power to conduct lifestyle checks, look into possible graft and corruption activities, and then recommend punishment against erring officials that would range from suspension to removal from office.

It may refer any case for appropriate action to the Office of the Ombudsman, or deputize any other office, committee, commission, bureau, agency, department or instrumentality, including government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) for assistance.