A graft-tolerant public

Our newly elected President should realize that corruption so rooted in government bureaucracy is the country’s major illness that must be cut off, like cancer. The public has become unbelievably tolerant to corruption as shown in some of their choices of leaders in the recent polls.

His recent appointments of seasoned technocrats to the key positions in finance drew favorable reactions from many. He can do no less with the office that has important oversight on corruption, the Commission on Audit (COA).

In fairness, COA has been churning out discrepancy reports on anomalies, which were significant enough for prosecution. Reports were given to the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches for action, but many were disregarded and mothballed. The big fishes, who were caught red-handed pocketing billions of pesos, just slipped out of the net and some even got elected to the Senate, while others, smiling all the way to the bank, in their ripe old age will enjoy their loot, while 23 percent of their impoverished countrymen can hardly eat.

The COA should adopt a paradigm shift in their duties, from merely prosecutorial reporting, to systems review and overhaul of all the offices in the bloated bureaucracy. Some positions were created and officials appointed with enviable perks, doing and accomplishing nothing, and even proliferating more corruption. First thing the President should focus attention on is seriously trimming the bureaucracy for the nation’s survival.

We just cannot survive with the oversized P5-trillion budget for 2022 left by the Duterte administration, against the most optimistic income estimate of less than P4 trillion, way off by at least P1 trillion. The President should refer to the Phil. Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) to hire experienced audit outfits among them, equipped to do the no-nonsense systems review and overhaul of the government bureaucracy.

First, by trimming the looming 2022 deficit and eliminate the wasted time of just paper shuffling in many offices, and secondly, provide the model for a lean but effective government organization for the future. For COA Chair, most needed is an experienced internal control systems expert, not a legal expert; the prosecutorial and legal functions are technical stuff a legal section can handle.

If prosecution of graft under the existing system continues to be ineffective and hopeless to rid us of this gangrenous corruption cancer, we should have at least a control system that cuts its many venomous tentacles.

We’re tempted just to give up beating the present corrupt system to keep our sanity. Would President BBM be the game-changing leader the country needs? – Marvel K. Tan, CPA [email protected]