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Saturday, March 19, 2005
Finance dep't urges private sector to battle corruption
By Kathy Villalon Cinco
FINANCE Assistant Secretary Roberto Tan urged the private sector to do their part in the fight against corruption during Friday's general meeting of the Iloilo Business Club (IBC) at the Sarabia Manor Hotel and Convention Center.
"We are urging the private sector to do their share in battling corruption," Tan said after businessmen asked how the private sector can trust the government with their money in terms of additional taxes.
"Though I'm not saying that all of our people are corrupt, the Department of Finance is very strong in pursuing its lifestyle checks on the agencies under it, like the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC). In fact, we have created a unit that exposes abusive and corrupt officials in these agencies. We even urge other departments to do the same," he said.
"This is a signal that we are serious in cleaning our own backyard. However, it is not an effort that only government is responsible for; the private sector should also do its part. It takes two to tango. If there's no counterpart to the corruption, there will be no corruption."
Justice system
Tan also suggested that to battle corruption, there is a need to improve on the justice system that "seems to be not working."
"We from the government are trying to engage even the Supreme Court (SC). It should improve its values as well as strengthen its capability to make decisions on cases (of corruption)," he said.
Decentralization
He also suggested the decentralization of government functions "in order to empower the local governments, because after all, they are the ones on the ground, where the infrastructure and basic services are given."
"Through this, the community itself will be forced to watch over the funds," he added.
Tan said they are now streamlining the bureaucracy but can only do so much. "Part of our expenditures are for payment of salaries of government officials. A big chunk of government personnel, like teachers and policemen, are giving the basic services. The (salaries for teachers and policemen) are the two biggest items in the expenditure portfolio of the government for salaries."
"Now, as the population grows, we need more teachers and more policemen, so we need to increase our budget through our taxes," he said.
(March 19, 2005 issue)
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