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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Resident ombuds help in fight v. graft
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Mayor Tomas Osmeña still has to find a resident ombudsman to run after crooks in City Hall, months after the post was left vacant.
He recently asked the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) to appoint City Hall’s in-house watchdog. There is no word yet from the religious group.
But whoever accepts the post of resident ombudsman can expect to have his hands full. The resident ombudsman, after all, is an ordinary government employee who faces the extraordinary task of preventing graft within the agency he works for.
Then ombudsman Aniano Desierto’s Administrative Order 10 in 2001 implemented the guidelines on appointing in-house government watchdogs and their tasks.
Assistance
Resident ombudsmen attend to requests for assistance any taxpayer may file with the anti-graft office involving transactions with the agency they work for.
Aside from this, resident ombudsmen also directly assist in fact-finding investigations by gathering evidence against a fellow employee who get charged before the anti-graft office.
According to Administrative Order 10, resident ombudsmen are considered deputized ombudsman investigators with the authority to conduct fact-finding inquiries in matters involving the agency they work in.
They also report anomalies, irregular acts, unethical conduct or illegal activity committed by officials within the agency. They perform systems analysis aimed at improving the way a government agency conducts an official function, and submit progress reports of existing assignments.
A resident ombudsman is expected to do his tasks voluntarily.
They are also expected to do all these despite the knowledge that they risk getting scorned at for snitching against a co-employee in assisting in in-agency investigations.
According to Administrative Order 10, a resident ombudsman may be appointed for a department, bureau, office, commission, government-owned or controlled corporation or any unit of the national government, as well as provincial, city or municipal governments.
They are appointed by the Ombudsman or, in his absence, the deputies, from a list submitted by the head of the agency, bureau, office or government unit concerned.
Nominees
The list should, in turn, contain three nominees-one nominated by the rank and file, the second recommended by supervisory officials and the third recommended by an accredited anti-graft unit or religious organization in the locality.
However, the Office of the Ombudsman may also appoint or designate any official or employee of a given agency as its resident ombudsman for that office.
Only three requirements need to be met for a government employee to be appointed a resident ombudsman: he or she must be in active service of the agency; he or she must be of “recognized probity, independence of mind and of proven integrity and competence;” and he must not be related or beholden to anybody of that particular agency.
But Mayor Osmeña is looking beyond City Hall’s walls for an in-house watchdog.
Osmeña said that inviting nongovernment organizations to do the task is a “radical” move, but he needs a watchdog with no links in City Hall.
He initially picked party-list group Akbayan and asked them to nominate names for the post.
But the mayor was discouraged after the group requested to make the position permanent.
Osmeña said he had to choose the INC, which he says has a “wide” pool of experts, to appoint the in-house ombudsman.
The mayor finds it urgent to fill the post because it has been vacant for several months now.
City Hall’s previous resident ombudsman, Romeo Cordova, incurred P1.7 million in unliquidated cash advances for “intelligence operations” during his term.
Cordova said in an earlier interview that he already liquidated the amount, but the accounting office last August said he still has not.
(October 19, 2005 issue)
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