Systems and people problem

MANILA, Philippines - This is with reference to the column on the abolition of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) (Gotcha, Sept. 3). May I respectfully point out the strategic role that PAGC played in the war against corruption for almost a decade, for fear that this may be lost in the course of the expose on the dysfunctional management practices in PAGC in the more recent past.

Unlike the Ombudsman whose mandate is rigidly defined in the law and the Constitution, PAGC had the benefit of flexibility in addressing the problem of corruption through appropriate amendments in its E.O. to trailblaze in the fight against corruption. Over and above and beyond “assisting” the Ombudsman through the administrative prosecution of high ranking Presidential Appointees (PAs), the PAGC began to engage in strategic anti-corruption interventions, patterned after best anti-corruption practices in the global community.

Seeing that prosecution alone was not solving the problem of corruption, considering that corruption is a systems problem, PAGC held a series of 5 seminar-workshops on corruption prevention in May 2002 attended by 33 government agencies. It subsequently focused on 10 critical government agencies and bureaus — DPWH, DAR, DOJ, DILG, DOH, DENR, BIR, BOC, DepEd and NLRC. It engaged academe, experts, stakeholders and concerned anti-corruption civil society groups in the crafting of initial corruption prevention reform measures in the concerned agencies/bureaus through focus group discussions which culminated in a MOA signing on the implementation of their corruption prevention reform measures on April 5, 2005.

In October, 2002, upon the directive of President Arroyo to conduct lifestyle checks in the fight against corruption, PAGC conducted a consultation-workshop on how to conduct lifestyle checks with resource persons and participants from the academe, anti-corruption bodies (the Inter-agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council in the executive branch), the intelligence community, investigative journalism practitioners and civil society anti-corruption groups. From the inputs and discussions in this consultation-workshop, PAGC came up with a Lifestyle Check Operations Manual. It then convened the participants into a Lifestyle Check Coalition with a MOU signing in March 2003 and worked together in the conduct of lifestyle checks. Thus was unleashed a potent lethal weapon in the fight against corruption as it would lead to the forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth in favor of the State.

When Tony Kwok, a retired Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hongkong, was tapped by Pres. Arroyo as an anti-corruption consultant, PAGC was tasked to convene the high level workshop to be conducted by Tony Kwok in Dec. 2004. The workshop output was an anti-corruption template consisting of 22 doables (measures that would not require funding or enactment of laws) in the four strategies to effectively stop corruption: prosecution, prevention, education (to develop competence in the systems approach to stop corruption as well as to develop zero tolerance for cor-ruption) and partnerships (to mobilize resources and anti-corruption advocates in the fight against corruption). Subsequently, PAGC assiduously monitored the implementation of the Integrity Development Action Plans (IDAP) of the participating agencies, coming up with a 5-step rating scheme corresponding to the 5 implementation stages of the measures, and regularly giving recognition to the most compliant agencies. From the 39 original participating agencies, there are, to date, 211 agencies, bureaus, regional offices, attached agencies and LGUs nationwide who have come forward and adopted the IDAP and are being assisted by PAGC. Three years after the IDAP roll out, PAGC developed an Anti-Corruption Scorecard (ACS) in order to assess the impact and effectiveness of the IDAP anti-corruption measures.

In 2006 PAGC embarked on another strategic approach in the fight against corruption — the strengthening of internal audit units, with funding assistance from the World Bank. It will be recalled that when internal audit was scrapped, corruption worsened. And though internal audit units were restored by the enactment of a law, they were not operationalized properly, if at all. Today, the participating agencies of this PAGC project have internal audit manuals specific to their respective agencies to ensure the proper functioning of their IAUs as well as trained and accredited IAU personnel that meet international standards.

Then too, seeing that the top officials in government agencies lacked the competence as well as the political will to re-engineer their systems to prevent corruption, PAGC, with the assistance of USAID tapped the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) to offer a Graduate Certificate Course on Corruption Prevention in 2006.To date, 3 batches of USAID scholars have completed the Course. This is the good news. The bad news is — none of them are the target participants — the top officials who have the power to re-engineer their systems to effectively curb corruption. The middle level participants are left with their power of persuasion to get their envisioned systems reforms effected. This illustrates the lack of political will to stop corruption in the highest levels that we are lamenting here.

At the end of the day, ending corruption requires management skills in the highest levels. Education to develop this competence is a must. Can the Congress Committee on Appointments please look into this in their screening of candidates for cabinet positions. And that those who fail to eradicate corruption in their respective agencies within a reasonable period of time be fired for lack of the management competence to re-engineer their systems to eliminate corruption.

Another effective intervention utilized by PAGC in the fight against corruption is Values Formation in order to develop zero tolerance for corruption — on both sides of the fence - for government personnel not to engage in corruption nor tolerate it and the public that they serve, that they may not corrupt them and that they fight back when victimized by corruption. PAGC has tapped the Good Citizenship Movement and the Presidential Council on Values Formation to provide Values Formation to IDAP participating agencies.

When the IRRs of the Anti-Red Tape Law were issued , PAGC swung into action and assisted agencies in the implementation of two important provisions in the Law — the Code of Conduct through a seminar in 2008 and the Citizens Charter ( a primer on how to avail of the services of each agency to eliminate the use of fixers) through a seminar in 2009.

These are just some of the pro-active and strategic interventions of PAGC in the fight against corruption, in addition to its core function of investigating and prosecuting PAs who engage in corruption, which it had stepped up, so that by 2007, over 500% more PAs had been penalized than the two previous administrations combined.

Now the question arises, why is corruption still worsening when we have thrown everything including the kitchen sink at it? First of all, PAGC’s initiatives are all long-term, with long gestation periods so that it will take some time for its benefits to kick in. Second, though these may be the right solutions to the problem of corruption, politics still keeps getting in the way. We all know only too well what we mean by this. Our leaders must stop being politicians and begin being statesmen, with only the good of the country at heart — and over and above their personal gain and personal ambitions.

In summary, corruption is a systems and a people problem. We must fix the systems so that they will not be vulnerable to corruption. We must also put in good people. One, without the other, will not solve the problem of corruption.

Lastly, let us build on the gains of previous initiatives to fight corruption. Or be doomed to always keep going back to square one. Let us move away from politics and begin to love our country — passionately.