LAST week, I met a retired department head in a coffee shop. He is old and weak. He has no money, no property and his wife eloped with a driver. He is just provided a small monthly allowance by his daughter.
His story: “Our local government was having a town fiesta. The mayor told me to have a cash advance. That was four months before the local election. The amount would be spent for varied fiesta activities. All the expenses will be liquidated by the fiesta committee. The liquidation was not that fast. The mayor lost in that election. The amount was big and when I retired, I was reprimanded to pay the amount in full. I do not want to tell you the rest of the story.”
In another LGU, there was this lady who was promoted to a higher position after the 2016 election. Her superior ordered her to do a cash advance for the programs of her department. Her day to day life in the office is tied up to hunting for receipts and to find “solutions” to expenses without official receipts.
A mayor in another town is suspended for not complying with the requirements of the bidding for an infrastructure project. The bad news is ... five members of the Bids and Awards Committee were also suspended. They simply followed what their mayor wanted.
There was this local irrigation project. Hundreds of casual workers were hired for the urgent need of the farmers. Many names appearing in the payroll were “ghosts”. The “ghosts” complained and a not-so-thorough investigation was conducted.
The verdict of the chief executive was to fire out the foreman. The poor guy was just a bridge to corruption. The big fishes were untouched. A new foreman was taken in. New “ghosts” were employed and the ghost hunting goes on.
It takes five or more employees to do a rock-n-roll. If the people “upstairs” are doing crocodile business; the people “downstairs” are also doing monkey business. The purchasers simply connive with the suppliers to increase the price of items so that they can spread the sunshine.
Rough practices could just be simple. Add zero to Ph100 to make it Ph1000 in the OR. This could be detected easily by the internal auditor or by the Commission on Audit. This is crude but some employees are just daring.
Politicians assigned employees in their offices based on the policy of the Civil Service Commission. Some employees are assets and some are liabilities. The selected ones are sacrificial lambs in the Temple of Politics. Tax payers are the victims.
In every rule there are exceptions. Some politicians are good. Just remember that any advantage attained by corruption is tantamount to defeat. Make your own evaluation.