Kith and Kin
Kith and kin
Updated 11:01pm (Mla time) Sept 23, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 24, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WITH OVER P5 million in cash advances in 2001 that remain unliquidated properly up to now, president and general manager Winston Garcia of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) should be taken to task for failing to meet the requirements of public accountability and transparency, values that are necessary to ensure that the GSIS is properly and effectively managed. The GSIS officialdom may say that is merely nitpicking, raised by muckrakers who refuse to recognize that the GSIS has vastly improved its income under Garcia. But the issue of proper liquidation of cash advances is valid. Proper liquidation means efficient management of the pension funds of tens of thousands of government workers.
The GSIS insists that the advances were liquidated. But the liquidation came in the form of an overriding certification that merely declared that the disbursements were used "in relation to or by reason of" Garcia's executive position. This form of liquidation does not fulfill the most elementary audit procedures and standards. And even if the GSIS insists this was above board and approved by the audit office, it should at least have the sensitivity to suit its procedures in accordance with unassailable norms. Public accountability requires no less.
But what is very telling about the report on Garcia's disbursements is that the disbursement vouchers were prepared by his sister, Carolyn Garcia-Empemano, who was his senior assistant, receiving more than P130,000 monthly in salary and allowances in 2001. That a kin prepares the vouchers for Garcia's approval may not be illegal but it is highly questionable. And since she's her brother's assistant, could Empemano properly liquidate his advances? Or if he liquidated them himself, could she be objective enough to perform the most basic audit and challenge him when the liquidation fell short of the standard?
Now Garcia could say that as an official, he is entitled to an assistant who enjoys his confidence. That may be so. But couldn't he find somebody on whom he could repose his confidence in the whole GSIS? To be sure, Empemano's work could be done by any of the secretaries or accounting clerks in the GSIS who aren't receiving salaries as big as hers. Moreover, confidence is not an absolute element in effective management. For Garcia and other similarly situated top officials to insist on the strictest confidence from those around them smells like a confidence game is being set up.
But Garcia is not alone in putting premium on confidence and kinship over efficiency and transparency. Even his critics among our lawmakers are guilty of employing their kin and making the public pay for them. Many of our lawmakers have relatives as staffers. When he was senator, Robert Jaworski made his son chief of staff. Teofisto Guingona made his daughter an assistant when he was in the Senate. When he was a congressman, Sergio Apostol made his daughter, Amelyn Apostol Buenviaje, chief of staff. When he was appointed chair and president of the Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp., he brought her along and later created a position for her, that of marketing manager, with a salary reportedly reaching P200,000.
The practice is not exclusive to the legislature. The executive and the judiciary teem with relatives of important officials working as confidential employees. They receive salaries beyond the pale of the salary standardization law.
That kith and kin fill confidential and high-paying government positions is a variant of the dynastic and feudalistic makeup of our politics and governance. Garcia and other officials may insist that there's nothing essentially wrong with putting kin in confidential positions, that this is merely a cultural trait, but they should at least realize this does not augur well for effective public management. If the GSIS and other government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) insist that the regime of high salaries that obtains in their offices is necessary to enable them to compete with the private sector and attract competent managers and professionals, then there's no reason for them to appoint their own relatives and friends as assistants, staff members and confidential employees. This simply flies in the face of professionalism and effective management that the high salaries are supposed to engender. Surely there are more competent people than their kin. Unless, of course, Garcia and the other officials look at GOCCs as their personal fiefdoms.
With that outlook, let the budget deficit go hang. Let the filial surplus thrive.
Updated 11:01pm (Mla time) Sept 23, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 24, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WITH OVER P5 million in cash advances in 2001 that remain unliquidated properly up to now, president and general manager Winston Garcia of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) should be taken to task for failing to meet the requirements of public accountability and transparency, values that are necessary to ensure that the GSIS is properly and effectively managed. The GSIS officialdom may say that is merely nitpicking, raised by muckrakers who refuse to recognize that the GSIS has vastly improved its income under Garcia. But the issue of proper liquidation of cash advances is valid. Proper liquidation means efficient management of the pension funds of tens of thousands of government workers.
The GSIS insists that the advances were liquidated. But the liquidation came in the form of an overriding certification that merely declared that the disbursements were used "in relation to or by reason of" Garcia's executive position. This form of liquidation does not fulfill the most elementary audit procedures and standards. And even if the GSIS insists this was above board and approved by the audit office, it should at least have the sensitivity to suit its procedures in accordance with unassailable norms. Public accountability requires no less.
But what is very telling about the report on Garcia's disbursements is that the disbursement vouchers were prepared by his sister, Carolyn Garcia-Empemano, who was his senior assistant, receiving more than P130,000 monthly in salary and allowances in 2001. That a kin prepares the vouchers for Garcia's approval may not be illegal but it is highly questionable. And since she's her brother's assistant, could Empemano properly liquidate his advances? Or if he liquidated them himself, could she be objective enough to perform the most basic audit and challenge him when the liquidation fell short of the standard?
Now Garcia could say that as an official, he is entitled to an assistant who enjoys his confidence. That may be so. But couldn't he find somebody on whom he could repose his confidence in the whole GSIS? To be sure, Empemano's work could be done by any of the secretaries or accounting clerks in the GSIS who aren't receiving salaries as big as hers. Moreover, confidence is not an absolute element in effective management. For Garcia and other similarly situated top officials to insist on the strictest confidence from those around them smells like a confidence game is being set up.
But Garcia is not alone in putting premium on confidence and kinship over efficiency and transparency. Even his critics among our lawmakers are guilty of employing their kin and making the public pay for them. Many of our lawmakers have relatives as staffers. When he was senator, Robert Jaworski made his son chief of staff. Teofisto Guingona made his daughter an assistant when he was in the Senate. When he was a congressman, Sergio Apostol made his daughter, Amelyn Apostol Buenviaje, chief of staff. When he was appointed chair and president of the Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp., he brought her along and later created a position for her, that of marketing manager, with a salary reportedly reaching P200,000.
The practice is not exclusive to the legislature. The executive and the judiciary teem with relatives of important officials working as confidential employees. They receive salaries beyond the pale of the salary standardization law.
That kith and kin fill confidential and high-paying government positions is a variant of the dynastic and feudalistic makeup of our politics and governance. Garcia and other officials may insist that there's nothing essentially wrong with putting kin in confidential positions, that this is merely a cultural trait, but they should at least realize this does not augur well for effective public management. If the GSIS and other government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) insist that the regime of high salaries that obtains in their offices is necessary to enable them to compete with the private sector and attract competent managers and professionals, then there's no reason for them to appoint their own relatives and friends as assistants, staff members and confidential employees. This simply flies in the face of professionalism and effective management that the high salaries are supposed to engender. Surely there are more competent people than their kin. Unless, of course, Garcia and the other officials look at GOCCs as their personal fiefdoms.
With that outlook, let the budget deficit go hang. Let the filial surplus thrive.
posted by Dante at 12:01 AM
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