COA EXEC BARES MORE FUND SCAMS
WASHINGTON, DC—Bond paper purchases worth P800 million at the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Mongol pencils overpriced 5,000 times at a city hospital and P25 million in government funds diverted for the wedding expenses of a governor's child that took 16 years to prosecute.
These are some of the unbelievable facets of corruption in the Philippines that whistleblower Heidi Mendoza encountered in the course of her job as a no-nonsense state auditor.
Speaking before a World Bank-sponsored forum on "Effective Auditing as the Bane of Grand Corruption: A Tale from the Front Lines," Mendoza highlighted how corruption deprives people of their rightful share of scarce public resources.
Joining her in the panel was former journalist Sheila Coronel, Columbia University professor on investigative journalism, and former executive director of the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism; and Rick Messick, a senior operations officer of the WB Department of Institutional Integrity, which assists corruption fighters in the bank's client countries.
Mendoza lamented how the AFP allotted more than P800 million on dubious procurement of bond paper, while an ordinary soldier gets only P12.50 in daily subsistence allowance and makes do with substandard combat boots and uniform and bullets that fail to fire.
Mendoza, who was recently appointed commissioner of the Philippine Commission on Audit by President Benigno Aquino III, narrated how it took more than 16 years for the government to prosecute a governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao for misusing some P25 million funds intended for rural infrastructure.
"When I started my audit, I was pregnant, and by the time the Supreme Court rendered a decision on the case, my child was more than 16 years old already," she said.
Mendoza related her experience of being slapped flimsy charges in court by powerful politicians to derail her investigative work.
"The hard part is when an auditor is charged in court because he or she does not get any support from the agency, and then left to fend for himself or herself," she said.
In her case, Mendoza said she was forced to go on leave and to hire a private lawyer to clear her name, using money she took on a salary loan.
Stressing that fighting corruption is not the sole responsibility of government, Mendoza said the people should be involved not only by exposing the corrupt, but also by refusing to be part of any dishonest transaction.
She said the public apathy and the oft-dysfunctional system of prosecution in the country contributes to corruption in society.
Mendoza observes that even a person's excessive focus on the welfare of the family could lead to corruption, because some people in public office tend to fail to draw the distinction between what is public and what is private.
"Love for family should be tempered by an even greater love for country and love of God," said Mendoza, who said it was the prayers and support of so many Filipinos that spurred her to pursue the truth and go after the grafters, even when it entailed grave personal risks.
Mendoza thinks the Aquino administration is determined to weed out corruption by appointing known graft fighters in sensitive positions like the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and COA, among others.
As new COA commissioner, Mendoza will have the actual chance to introduce the much-needed reforms she has studied during her long years as an auditor.
For instance, she said there are proposals to subject to auditing all "pork barrel"—funds appropriated from the national budget to finance local or district projects in order to promote the reelection of politicians.
These projects become a source of corruption in the form of overpricing or even "ghost" or non-existent projects.
Some progressive-minded senators and congressmen are clamoring for the abolition of this so-called “pork politics” because it perpetuates political patronage.
She also said that organizations like the World Bank and civil society should support the work of corruption fighters, in terms of providing training and creating the environment conducive to honesty and transparency in public transactions.
Mendoza shot to national prominence this year after she resigned her job at the Asian Development Bank to pursue massive corruption charges involving former AFP comptroller Carlos Garcia, who admitted to laundering more than P300 million in public funds.
As head of a special audit team assigned by then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, Mendoza helped prosecute retired Major General Garcia in his plunder case in the Sandiganbayan. Mendoza blew the whistle on how Garcia stashed away millions of military funds in his personal accounts.
Mendoza said it was a lonely fight when she testified in the Sandiganbayan, with only her and her husband attending, during which time she was called a liar by Garcia, along with a threat, “there is a time for reckoning."
After Marcelo resigned, the case hit a wall, and Mendoza decided to resign after she failed to get the support of her superiors at the COA.
But things turned around when Garcia’s plunder case was reduced to bribery and money laundering as a result of a questionable plea bargain deal with the Office of the Ombudsman last year.
Mendoza resurfaced and testified before congressional hearings on the plea bargain deal.
The Garcia investigation was actually triggered by events on December 18, 2003, when US Customs agents at the San Francisco International Airport seized $100,000 in cash from Garcia's two sons—Filipino Americans Juan Carlo and Ian Carl—who hid the money in their carry-on luggage.
The brothers explained in identical letters that they brought the money at the request of their parents to pay the tuition and registration fees of their New York-based brother, Timothy Mark, who was accepted at Parsons School, and to pay the initial down payment of a condominium unit near the school. FilAm Star
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