Office of the Ombudsman. NOY MORCOSO/INQUIRER.net file photo
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales sacked six state auditors for receiving hundreds of thousands of bonuses each from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) from 2006 to 2010.
In a statement on Friday, Morales said the auditors from the Commission on Audit (COA) were dismissed from service due to grave misconduct: Juanito Daguno Jr. (who received P615,000), Proceso Saavedra (P692,000), Teresita Tam (P592,000), Corazon Cabotage (P542,000), Evangeline Sison (P183,000), Vilma Tiongson (P164,000) and data machine operators Violeta Gamil (P834,000) and Roberto Villa (P650,000).
They were meted out with the accessory penalties of perpetual disqualification from government service and forfeiture of retirement benefits.
“COA auditors and employees were obviously motivated by malicious intent to favor self-interest at the expense of the public… (T)heir acts are contrary to accepted rules of right and duty, honesty and good morals,” Morales said in the decision.
Also facing graft indictment for the hefty bonuses are COA executives Edna Anical, Thelma Baldovino, Evelyn De Leon, Daguno Jr., Nestorio Ferrera, Gamil, Zoharayda Obog, Ligaya Principio, Jesusa Punsalan, Saavedra, Paulino Sarmiento, Tam, Villa, Cabotage, Sison and Tiongson for violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Under the anti-graft law, Section 3(e) prohibits public officials from causing any undue injury to any party, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.
Ombudsman Morales also suspended for six months without pay the LWUA executives Lorenzo Jamora, Wilfredo Feleo, Orlando Hondrade and Daniel Landingin for Simple Misconduct. In case of separation from the service, the penalty is convertible to a fine equivalent to six months’ salary.
Ombudsman investigators found out that the LWUA executives approved and signed Letters of Instructions directing the issuance of checks covering the irregular bonuses for LWUA and COA personnel which totaled P25 million.
According to the records of the COA Human Resource Office, Anical received P789,000; Baldovino, P886,000; De Leon, P517,000; Daguno Jr., P615,000; Ferrera, P961,000; Gamil, P834,000; Obog, P658,000; Principio, P642,000; Punsalan, P602,000; Saavedra, P692,000; Sarmiento, P703,000; Tam, P592,000; Villa, P650,000; Cabotage, P542,000; Sison, P183,000 and Tiongson, P164,000.
“(T)he amount given [was] huge and arbitrary,” Morales said in the decision, and that even a COA machine operator assigned at the LWUA received P140,000 and P43,000 in Nov. 2006 alone.
The auditors also received bonuses twice a month in Nov. 2006, Sept. and Dec. 2007, Sept. and Dec. 2008 and March 2010.
Morales said “their patent disregard of the existing policy of their own institution against the practice of receiving additional compensation cannot be deemed a mere lapse of judgment.”
“Respondents, being state auditors and employees of COA itself, are presumed to know the prohibition,” she added.
Meanwhile, Morales said the LWUA executives are also liable because “their stamp of approval and authorization for fund disbursement as payment for the questioned benefits is a clear transgression” of the Salary Standardization Law and other COA regulations. RAM
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