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Saturday, June 04, 2005
Nalzaro: Culture of corruption
By Bobby Nalzaro
Corruption is still widespread under the present administration, said a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey commissioned by a group of Makati-based business executives. So, what else is new?
The survey, which was conducted nationwide, showed that despite the supposedly no non-sense campaign by the administration to eradicate graft and corruption, this long time “cancer” is prevalent in almost all government agencies.
Government is losing billions of pesos to corruption, thus contributing to the fiscal crisis government is facing. If not for corruption, government could have collected and saved more money to finance government projects, uplift the standard of living of every Filipino and pay our foreign debt.
The survey revealed that corruption in the public sector ranges from extortion in application of government permits and licenses, paying income tax, complying with import regulation, collecting receivables from the government, supplying the government with services and availing of incentives and asking kickbacks and commission from infrastructure projects.
But we cannot totally blame the government because the private sector has contributed much to this. As they say, it takes two to tango.
Private persons and entities transacting with the government bribe or offer commissions to get favorable contracts. Many business executives who were respondents of the SWS survey said they did have under the table dealings with some government officials.
To supposedly eliminate graft and corruption, the Arroyo administration created a special office, the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, which has been tasked to go after corrupt government entities and officials.
The agency conducts lifestyle checks of suspected grafters. But only very few have been investigated and charged so far.
One of the reasons why graft and corruption is still widespread is the slow pace of judicial proceedings. Our laws are more sympathetic to the accused by allowing them to avail of the so-called due process.
Conviction takes a long, long time. Although some of the accused have been dismissed from service, we can only count with our fingers those who have been criminally convicted of corruption. An example is the case against the Marcoses, which has dragged on for several years now.
If we could just hang immediately these grafters in public--that would be the time we can eliminate corruption.
(Bobby@sunstar.com.ph/09193181404)
(June 4, 2005 issue)
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