Resident ombudsmen for ‘corruption-prone’ gov’t agencies eyed —Guevarra

The Department of Justice, the Commission on Audit, and the Office of the Ombudsman are finalizing an agreement to revive the deployment of resident ombudsmen to agencies prone to corruption.

In a message to reporters on Wednesday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the memorandum of agreement is expected to be signed in July.

“[Under the proposed agreement], DOJ prosecutors and COA auditors will be deputized by the Ombudsman to act as watchdogs in corruption-prone government agencies,” he said.

The DOJ leads an inter-agency task force investigating allegations of corruption in the entire government.

As of June 9, 2021, the task force had received at least 220 complaints of alleged corrupt activities in government, 210 of which “had been acted upon quietly,” Guevarra said.

Fifteen complaints each were endorsed to the Office of the Ombudsman and the National Bureau of Investigation for further investigation or case build-up.

The rest were referred to other relevant government agencies for the conduct of administrative investigation.

“The agencies/units with the most number of complaints were various LGUs (local government units), followed closely by the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways). Many of the complaints were about anomalous transactions perpetrated jointly by these LGUs and district engineering offices,” Guevarra said.

“Other agencies with large numbers of complaints were the LRA (Land Registration Authority), DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources), and the BOC (Bureau of Customs). Various GOCCs (government-owned or -controlled corporations) were the subject of numerous complaints, too.” — BM, GMA News