Senator Mar Roxas has sought more transparency and accountability in the use of public funds for foreign travels of government officials and employees, including those in the uniformed service.
The senator has filed Senate Bill No. 2982, or the proposed Government Employees Official Travel Accountability Act of 2009, to discourage a recurrence of the “Euro Generals Scandal”, which he lamented brought international infamy to the country.
“Let us make sure the Moscow scandal does not happen again. The world had glimpsed how corrupt our government is. Let us correct how our leaders waste the people’s money, especially for the foreign travels of officials and employees,” he said.
The Ilonggo senator was referring to the arrest of retired police comptroller Eliseo dela Paz and his wife in Russia in October last year for their non-disclosure of 105,000 Euros (P6.9 million) that they brought to Moscow when they attended an Interpol meeting.
Dela Paz, during the Senate hearings into the scandal, has claimed the money was drawn from the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) confidential and intelligence funds, supposedly for the purchase of intelligence equipment.
The incident drew flak from senators, who condemned the PNP leadership’s lenience in the release of its intelligence funds and raised questions on the procedure by which such funds are disbursed.
“We have witnessed how government officials wasted the people’s money. We have discovered how they used official foreign travels as a scheme to steal from the government coffers,” Roxas said.
In proposing SB 2982, Roxas seeks to lay down specific guidelines for the authorized foreign trips of all public officials, such as prohibiting government officials or employees from joining travels abroad one year before his/her retirement. It defines the allowable travel expenses for such travels.
The bill also mandates the disclosure of the full amount of foreign currency brought into or out of the country in the course of the official trip. It also calls for the submission of a completion report of the official business attended, as well as an accounting and liquidation of the funds used for the official journey.
It proposes penalties for the non-disclosure of the amount of foreign currency carried out and into the country and for non-compliance with the reportorial and accounting and liquidation requirements. “I hope my colleagues in the Senate do not disregard the trust the public has given us,” Roxas said. /MP
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