DOF conducts lifestyle checks on revenue officials, personnel

The Department of Finance is conducting lifestyle checks on its employees as well as of its attached agencies after finding out that some personnel owned expensive condominium units and cars despite their meager salaries.

“So what we do is to look up the SALNs [statements of assets, liabilities and net worth] of everyone under our umbrella. That’s the Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Bureau of Local Government Finance, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Insurance Commission and all local treasurers. And then we compare, look at the trend and [their] declaration,” Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin told reporters Friday night.

“Some are, let’s say, earning P20,000 a month, but you can see year-on-year jump in their SALNs… We discovered also, for instance, that they do not declare properties in their SALNs,” Agabin said.

Some officials and employees also collect cars, expensive bags and watches, as well as guns, Agabin added.

“Recently, we secured four or five [personnel] for dismissal. Some of them, even if they earn only P40,000 a month they have two condos in Makati, expensive properties,” according to Agabin.

The Finance official said they were investigating “many” personalities, but declined to identify them.

“A couple” of high-ranking officials were also being investigated, he said. “Personally, it’s better if we investigate high-ranked officials, or else we will be accused of targeting only lower-level [personnel].”

However, Agabin admitted that higher-ranked officials also get better at hiding their unexplained wealth. “Our problem is, mas tumataas ang rank, mas umuutak, mas gumagaling magtago. We just have to out-think them,” he said.

At present, the DOF has a unit called Revenue Integrity Protection Service (Rips), which investigates and files charges against erring revenue officers.

On its website, Rips said that under the watch of Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, the DOF as of July this year “[took] punitive action against at least 19 erring local treasurers and other officials under its supervision, in line with President Duterte’s commitment to public accountability and transparency in government under his administration.”

Since its inception in 2003 until September this year, Rips investigated a total of 576 personalities, filed 250 cases, charged 305 personalities, dismissed 47 from service, as well as suspended 96 others, the latest data on its website showed. /je