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COA and OMB launch joint investigation team
18 April 2012

            MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Audit (COA) and the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) today launched a joint team to fast-track the investigation and prosecution of cases arising out of COA fraud audit reports. COA Chairperson Ma. Gracia Pulido Tan and Ombudswoman Conchita Carpio Morales signed the Memorandum of Agreement in the newly inaugurated office of the COA-OMB Joint Investigation Team located within the COA premises.

            Collaborating their anti-corruption initiatives as members of the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council, COA and the OMB through the joint investigation team aim to ensure the efficient and successful filing, investigation and prosecution of cases involving graft, corruption and violations of the ethical code of conduct for public officials and government employees.

            “With the Office of the Ombudsman and the COA working together, we are confident that these cases will finally be resolved, the names of innocent individuals cleared, and the accountable officials meted the appropriate penalties,” said Ombudswoman Morales.

            “We are constitutionally mandated in our respective capacities to ensure accountability and integrity in public office,” added COA Chairperson Pulido Tan. “We will thus attend to these cases with the highest degree also of accountability and integrity.”

            This institutional partnership is part of an ongoing effort to enhance and expand mutual assistance between COA and the OMB under the leaderships of Ombudswoman Morales and COA Chairperson Pulido Tan. Under the terms of the MOA, which will run for three years, the two Offices will share resources and expertise in the successful processing of cases under joint investigation.

            The designated focal persons for the COA-OMB Joint Investigation Team are Chief Executive Staff Atty. Gilbert G. Kintanar from the COA, and Deputy Special Prosecutor John I.C. Turalba from the OMB.

            A joint statement by the COA Chairperson and the Ombudswoman is attached.

Joint statement of Ombudswoman Conchita Carpio Morales and COA Chairperson Ma. Gracia Pulido Tan

On the Inauguration of COA-OMB Joint Investigations

18 April 2012

SAADO Auditorium, Commission on Audit

Quezon City

           

            Today is a propitious day, as we inaugurate a strategic partnership between the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman in the fight against graft and corruption.

            When we came to office about a year ago, we were confronted with an alarmingly huge inventory of case files involving allegations of bribery and wanton misuse of public money.  Many more complaints of the same tenor have since deluged our offices, and the inflow of information and investigation and audit requests – mostly from citizens – continues to increase.

            While we lost no time in working on these cases within our respective organizations, we soon came to realize that for a more speedy and effective resolution of these cases, we needed to institutionally partner with one another in a structured, targeted and coordinated manner, in a spirit of utmost mutual assistance and cooperation, and be bound by the highest purpose of holding each public servant – including ourselves – fully accountable to the people.

            We are deeply mindful of the “culture of impunity” so often spoken of and written about, as one of the most impelling factors in the incidence of graft and corruption in the country.  How so often bewailed that graft pays, because only the “small fish,” if at all, get punished, and the big fish get away to yet another adventure, emboldening the next-in-ranks to help themselves in adventures of their own until they, too, become big fish, and the cycle goes on.

            This culture of impunity must go if we are to restore public office as truly a public trust.  Complaints involving high officials of the land, plunderous misuse of public funds, and other cases highly impacting the drive against graft and corruption, must be attended to with dispatch and investigated with the highest degree of integrity, independence and competence.

            Drawing from our respective constitutional mandates, and our statutory authorities to engage each other’s assistance in carrying out our solemn responsibilities to country and people, we have thus joined forces to dedicate a team that will primarily handle and attend to these cases.  We will do our best to obtain for the members of this joint investigation team continuous training to upgrade their capabilities in forensic auditing, evidence gathering and documentation, case strategies and presentation; deepen their commitment to civic responsibility; equip them with modern technological tools; and grant commensurate incentives as may be allowed by law.

            And this is why we are here today, in this room at the Commission on Audit where the COA-OMB Joint Investigation Team will take residence in our quest to restore the confidence of the people in their institutions and servants.

            In this quest, we humbly request everyone’s support and prayers. The success of the COA-OMB Joint Investigation Team will surely be the success of the Filipino people.

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