Tuesday, October 21, 2008
New system to curb graft, says BI official
THE lingering corruption at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) 7 will be minimized, if not totally eradicated, once the centralized receiving and releasing sections are established, said Assistant Secretary Romeo “Butch” Junia.
Speaking before the Tapok-Tapok News Forum, Junia said that allowing everybody to receive applications and payments from aliens will make everybody vulnerable to corruption.
Junia, who is detailed as BI 7 director and assistant to the commissioner for the Visayas, said that in the new system, once application or the document is received, the processing will start immediately.
With a routing slip, an immigration personnel who causes any delay in the processing can easily be traced.
Junia advised all BI clients to transact business only with immigration people assigned in frontline services.
He warned immigration personnel that a transaction that does not pass at the receiving and releasing desks will be considered illegal and irregular.
Junia said he was designated to BI 7 last Aug. 1 and on Aug. 11, he assumed as regional director and assistant to the commissioner for the Visayas.
“Since then, I have had a chance to look at how things are done and how things work at the bureau,” he said.
He said that late last month, he had a long discussion with Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan and among the things that they covered were a few suggestions on how to implement a system to track and monitor the discharge of functions at the bureau.
Observation
Junia agreed with public observation that in the current system, it’s hard to trace documents. Primarily, it’s in the hands of aliens who are mostly going back to their respective countries after their stay in the Visayas.
He said that if the aliens stay in Cebu for only 21 days and go home afterwards, the BI 7 cannot examine their documents to determine whether their payments to the immigration bureau were issued official receipts.
“We are now working for a system, and we will have centralized receiving of all the documents. Regardless of transaction, we are going to establish just one window where everyone who has anything to do with the bureau can go and initiate their transaction from that window,” Junia said. (EOB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (October 21, 2008 issue)
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