|
NATIONAL
INTEGRITY STUDY
By Dr. Gabrielle Quimson for Transparency International |
Today,
the Philippines is in a flurry of anticorruption activity. The
Government has been working hard hand-in-hand with international
donor organizations to fast-track and implement a myriad of
reform initiatives to rid the country of endemic and rampant
corruption. Focusing on both preventive and punitive efforts
and supported by substantial foreign and domestic financial
resources, projects on policy development, E-governance, holistic
involvement of sectoral organizations, corruption diagnostic
tools amongst many others, are being implemented.
A Steering Committee on Convergence of Anticorruption Initiatives
has helped jump-start a National Anti-Corruption Plan of Action
and forward-thinking leaders of three autonomous constitutional
bodies, the CSC, Ombudsman and the COA, have forged an anticorruption
strategy called the Solana Covenant linking together with other
anticorruption agencies in the Inter-Agency Anti Graft Coordinating
Council to form internal audit units and assess corruption vulnerabilities
in high-risk agencies. Regional anticorruption organizations,
such as, Barug and Abra have sprouted producing local heroines
like Perla Sumangil. Even the business sector now claims to
be part of Civil Society, pitching in with a network called
Coalition on Corruption.
Yet recent surveys and reports show that the Philippines is
still in the doldrums when it comes to reducing corruption levels.
International surveys like the 2005-2006 PERC report that the
Philippines is second only to the most corrupt country in Asia,
Bangladesh; the country’s ranking in Transparency International’s
(TI) Corruption Perception Index has steadily worsened reaching
an all-time high of 117 in 2005 from 102 in 2004; and, the latest
report mid-March this year by Pacific Strategies and Assessments
(PSA) a leading Asia-based business risk consultancy firm claims
that a weak rule of law and rampant corruption continue to make
the Philippines Asia's top kidnapping spot.
These reports are in conjunction with local ones like the Social
Weather Station (SWS) surveys which claim that in 2005 most
Filipino entrepreneurs still perceived corruption as a major
problem and in 2006 “Year of Great Trials” Annual
Survey Review asserted that consistent areas of public dissatisfaction
remain about the President and corruption. In addition to all
these, are a plethora of newspaper reports littered with allegations
concerning, fertilizer scams, electoral fraud, jueteng payolas,
political financing scandals, pre-need companies’ corporate
governance problems and military thievery in procurement. So
the question remains - what is going wrong with the Philippines
today?
TI’s National
Integrity Study (NIS) presents a first step towards answering
this question and helps towards purging this corruption quagmire.
Developed and promoted by TI as part of a holistic approach
to combating corruption, the Philippine NIS in particular assesses
the quality of Philippine institutions relevant to the overall
anti-corruption system and specifically focuses on the regulatory
system. It also assesses the independence of institutions in
terms of financial resources, analyses whether officials are
being made accountable for their actions; identifies whether
disclosure mechanisms work throughout hierarchies in systems
structure and evaluates whether relationships and interactions
exist amongst integrity pillars to help integrate the fight
against corruption. While no blueprint exists for an effective
system for corruption prevention, there is growing international
consensus that these are salient institutional features that
work best to prevent corruption and promote integrity.
In response to the Study’s main purpose which assesses
law and regulatory provisions and how well these work, the Philippine
Study has come up with three findings. These are: firstly, quantity
in terms of legislation, unfortunately, has not produced quality
in terms of indictments, prosecution and conviction. Although
a tight, comprehensive and in-depth regulatory framework in
the form of RAs, AOs, EOs PDS etc, exists compounded with zero-tolerance
attitudes the necessary compliance, implementation and enforcement
which should have followed and led to a sharp decline in corruption
levels has not been forthcoming.
The multitude of task forces, racy-named programmes like RATE
(Run After Tax Evaders in the BIR) RATS (Run after the Smugglers
in BOC) and SWAT (Swift Action Team) have so far failed to catch
big “namedroppables”. Secondly, overdeveloped regulations
have caused bureaucratic gridlocks and underdeveloped ones have
allowed corruptors to get off scot-free. Sometimes in the overzealousness
to fight corruption, rigid anticorruption procedure has brought
in its wake problems with “bureaucratic clogging”
leading to red tape overload particularly in procurement areas.
Gridlock has occurred in areas of the bureaucracy where unsigned
contracts remain indefinitely on officials’ desks because
of fear of losing pay and retirement benefits if caught up in
corruption proceedings and legal wrangling.
On the other hand, underdeveloped regulation in other areas
such as political financing and whistle blowing has allowed
corruptors to operate with impunity and escape unhampered. Finally,
this legion of rules and regulations has so far not only failed
to capture the “hearts and minds” of the people
but has also served to increase corruption in certain areas
within the Criminal Justice System. Apparently, laws have not
penetrated into the deep psyche of the Filipino people and have
on the whole remained meaningless and remote for the majority.
Moral bankruptcy remains a grave issue.
Perhaps more visual examples are needed to inculcate anticorruption
values, such as, leadership by example, integrity circles, a
culture of integrity and conviction and prosecution of “big
fish” to show government means business. There is no doubt
that reducing corruption in the Philippines will not happen
overnight requiring a “step by step” process. Strengthening
the NIS’ apertures will eventually bridge gaps between
form and substance, promise and performance, theory and practice,
rhetoric and reality. The NIS is the “baby step”
the Philippines must take to help promote better governance
and anticorruption across all aspects of society. |
|
|
