SO THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is the most corrupt government agency based on the complaints received by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) between March last year and February this year.
No surprise there.
Although, I have to admit, I expected the Bureau of Customs or the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), both of which are under the Department of Finance (DOF), to take the top spot.
Still, the DOF came in third, tied with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which means the agency is still quite corrupt. Although, I think it would have ranked first had the PACC based the list not on complaints received but on under-the-table transactions.
Unscrupulous businessmen don’t want to pay the right taxes for their shipments, and so they collude with Customs officials to have the amount reduced in exchange for a fee.
Or so I was told.
But for the hoi polloi, it’s a matter of urgency; to see what dad, mom, kuya or ate had sent from abroad. Mind you, some of the items can exact high duties which the recipient doesn’t want or can’t afford to pay. So the haggling begins. To facilitate the quick release of these balikbayan boxes, grease money exchanges hands.
Again, or so I was told.
At the end of the day, the briber and the bribee go home happy.
I heard the same thing happens at the BIR.
We all know the public is partly to blame for this institutionalized problem, especially when the Customs and the BIR are concerned.
By the way, the list was released by PACC chairman Dante Jimenez, who was in Cebu last Monday, March 25, to meet with regional directors of government agencies.
According to Jimenez, he wanted to warn public officials and employees against getting involved in any kind of corruption.
But what’s the worst that can happen if they get caught?
They lose their positions or their jobs or even lose face. So what? They’ve probably saved enough money from all their illegal transactions to spend the rest of their lives in comfort. It’s not like they rot in jail for all of eternity or get executed.
Jimenez also urged the public to report corruption.
Again, easier said than done.
An applicant for a drivers license who cannot comply with all the requirements will move heaven and earth to obtain that plastic because for him, it’s a matter of life and death. So how can you expect him to rat out the person who will provide him with the means to support his family?
As for whistleblowers, well, we all know they don’t live happily ever after.
So what else is new?