EDITORIAL - Contingency Fund

What is a retired police officer doing, representing the Philippine National Police in Moscow, and carrying with him 105,000 euros? Police Director Eliseo de la Paz retired last Oct. 9. Yet he still attended the 77th convention of the International Police in the Russian city of St. Petersburg from Oct. 7 to 10. De la Paz even served — according to his superiors — as the disbursing officer of the Philippine delegation. Has the PNP run out of police officers in the active service? It doesn’t look like it; De la Paz was accompanied to Russia by six police generals and a lower ranking officer who reportedly served as the aide of the delegation.

De la Paz was apprehended and prevented from flying back to Manila by Russian authorities at the Moscow airport after the large amount of cash was found in his luggage. PNP officials in Manila explained that the 105,000 euros — about P6.8 million at current exchange rates — was what was left of the PNP delegation’s contingency fund, which would have to be liquidated upon De la Paz’s return to the Philippines.

But Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP chief, pointed out that the only public official allowed to have a contingency fund this year is President Arroyo. Government auditing rules also prohibit the allocation of such a large amount for a travel contingency fund, Lacson pointed out. He said police officers are given $530 per day for foreign trips. Public officials are allowed a per diem of no more than $1,000 a day for official trips overseas, Lacson added.

Questions are also being raised on why eight PNP officers had to attend the Interpol gathering in one of the most expensive cities in the world at a time when the world is reeling from its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Director General Jesus Verzosa, newly appointed PNP chief, has suspended foreign trips of police officers pending an investigation of the case of De la Paz. Verzosa looks bent on overhauling his organization. The case of De la Paz can be a good start.