BIR conducts lifestyle checks, warns its erring personnel

Bureau of Internal Revenue building. AFP FILE PHOTO

THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) is conducting lifestyle checks on its employees after Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay issued a stern warning to erring revenue officers to shape up or else.

In a statement, the BIR said Dulay’s anticorruption campaign at the country’s biggest tax-collection agency included an investigation into the lifestyles of its officials and personnel.

The commissioner has enlisted the help of the Land Registration Authority, Land Transportation Office and National Bureau of Investigation to facilitate the background checks.

“He told erring personnel to either resign or retire, or face dismissal from the service,” the BIR said.

In his first month in office, Dulay “placed a revenue district officer in the ‘freezer’ for sending fruits to the Office of the Commissioner” and ordered that the officer be investigated, according to the BIR.

“This faux pas gave Commissioner Dulay the impetus to issue a ‘no gift policy’ to the entire BIR,” the agency said.  Ben O. de Vera