Ombudsman, COA to form anti-graft team

MANILA, Philippines - An elite team of graft investigators and state auditors will be created by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Commission on Audit (COA) chair Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan with the specific task of fighting graft and corruption in the government.

Morales and Tan said the increasing number of complaints and requests for investigation being filed both before the Office of the Ombudsman and COA prompted them to create the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council (IACC).

“Drawing from our respective constitutional mandates and our statutory authorities to engage each other’s assistance in carrying out our solemn responsibilities to country and people, we have thus joined forces to dedicate a team that will primarily handle and attend to these cases,” they said in a joint statement.

They said their common desire to speed up the resolution of cases without compromising efficiency and integrity led them to forge a partnership to create IACC.

“We will do our best to obtain for the members of this joint investigation team continuous training to upgrade their capabilities,” Morales and Tan assured the public.

They said members of the joint investigation team of the Office of the Ombudsman and COA will be trained in the fields of forensic auditing, evidence gathering and documentation, and case strategies and presentation.

Morales and Tan said they would also push for deeper commitment to civic responsibility among IACC members while equipping them with modern technological tools.

The Ombudsman and COA said the special investigation team would be granted commensurate incentives as may be allowed by law.

Morales and Tan led the signing of a memorandum of agreement to form the IACC last week, declaring that high-profile cases like the fertilizer fund scam will be prioritized.

“When we came to office about a year ago, we were confronted with an alarmingly huge inventory of case files involving allegations of bribery and wanton misuse of public money,” their joint statement read.

“Many more complaints of the same tenor have since deluged our offices, and the inflow of information and investigation and audit requests – mostly from citizens – continues to increase,” they said.

“While we lost no time in working on these cases within our respective organizations, we soon came to realize that for a more speedy and effective resolution of these cases, we needed to institutionally partner with one another in a structured, targeted and coordinated manner, in a spirit of utmost mutual assistance and cooperation, and be bound by the highest purpose of holding each public servant – including ourselves – fully accountable to the people,” Morales and Tan said.