CSC to introduce new SALN forms in 2008

They will be more exacting for those who use government office to amass wealth and a welcome relief for the lowly employees. If you are a government employee, chances are you have expressed frustration over the annual filing of the sworn statement of assets and liabilities (SALN). After all, making a mistake in filling up the form could land you into serious trouble. The SALN is supposed to be a tool that the public can use to monitor and prosecute public officials who have amassed wealth unexplained by their known income. The SALN was one of the key documents government prosecutors used in graft charges filed against former presidents Joseph Estrada and Ferdinand Marcos. It is commonly used in lifestyle check investigations. Too often than not, however, due to loopholes in the law and flaws in the way the forms were crafted, the corrupt are able to evade detection, according to Civil Service Commission Chairperson Karina David. Meantime, she says, lowly government employees who have little to declare to begin with and are only trying to comply with what is required in the forms are exposed to potential charges of perjury. “The (current) forms require you to get the market value (every year). Who would know that? So you hazard a guess. That’s falsification. Every time you do not fill out a form properly, you can be charged." Moreover, she says, hardly any big fish is convicted on the basis of the SALN alone. “Right now, the SALN is only used as corroborating evidence. That was not the intention." Baseline and Annual Declarations It is for this reason, according to David, that the Civil Service Commission decided to adopt a new system in the filing of the SALN. Under the new system, which will be implemented for the first time in 2008, there will be two types of declarations: the Baseline Declaration and the Annual Declaration. The Baseline Declaration is a one-time declaration which will be accomplished by current government officials and employees on or before April 30, 2008 (to cover declaration of assets, liabilities and net worth of bureaucrats and their dependents as of December 31, 2007). It will also be required of all new government officials and employees upon entering the service. Every year henceforth, employees and officials (who have already filed their Baseline Declarations) will be accomplishing the Annual Declaration. Here’s how it differs. Unlike in the current system where everybody is required to declare everything he or she owns every year, the new Annual Declaration form requires bureaucrats to declare only the new acquisitions or any changes to their circumstances that affect their legal and financial status. For instance, when an employee has already declared her house and lot under her Baseline Declaration, she need not look up its current fair market value in future declarations unless she sells the house, in which case the sale will be declared by enclosing in parenthesis the value of the liquidated asset. If the employee has already declared a relative in his baseline declaration, he need not mention the relative again in future declarations. That is, unless the relative retired or resigned from the service, in which case his or her name will be enclosed in parenthesis in the Annual Declaration for the year to indicate that he is already separated from service. Welcome Relief In the case of liabilities, the employee is required to provide the outstanding balance of his loan and the amount that was already paid. For the majority of employees who have little to declare anyway, the new system should be a welcome relief, David says, as it will free them from the hassle of having to research the fair market value of whatever small piece of property they may have every year. It will also eliminate the possibility of these individuals being harassed with perjury suits if they make simple mistakes in the way they file their annual declarations. The new forms however promise to be more exacting since they will require more specific details of properties declared. For instance, in the case of vehicles owned or acquired by the employee or official, the new form requires the person to indicate the type of vehicle, plate number, certificate of registration and place of registration. In the old forms, the officials were able to get away with such vague descriptions as “vehicles and others" in their SALNs. More Potent Weapon It goes a step further. If an employee has not acquired any new real property for a given year, he or she is required to attest to this fact as well by ticking the box that says “there have been no acquisitions and disposals of real properties pertaining to me/my spouse/my children below 18 years of age living in my household since my last SALN submission." There are similar omnibus statements pertaining to the acquisition and disposal of vehicles, investments, and liabilities in government services. This means employees and officials cannot claim to have simply omitted to declare an item in their SALNs as what has happened too often in the past. The form also covers assets listed under the names of dummies by requiring inclusion, in their declaration of properties, those properties in the name of another person if the ownership pertains either to the declarant, his or her spouse, or a minor in a trust arrangement. The new system aims to bridge the gap between the original intent of the law on SALNs to what they are right now—an annual nuisance that does not really give government prosecutors the weapon they need to go after the corrupt. Copies of the new forms and the CSC resolution covering it are scheduled to be published in major dailies in January 2008. - Newsbreak