Engineer in trouble for buying camera from mom’s store

A municipal engineer in Sultan Kudarat faces graft charges for using public funds to buy a P16,000 digital camera from a store owned by her mother.

In a statement on Thursday, the Office of the Ombudsman found probable cause to charge Arlene Olivar of Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, with violating Sections 3(e) and 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The Ombudsman said Olivar failed to disclose that the store from which the municipality bought an IXUS Digital Camera worth  P16,000 was owned by her mother.

The camera bought in March 2011 was used to document the status of the Mindanao Rural Development Program.

In its resolution, the Ombudsman said Olivar had direct or indirect financial or pecuniary interest in the transaction.

“She displayed manifest partiality in favor of Olivar Store when she did not divulge to her co-respondents that Olivar Store is owned by her mother,” the Ombudsman said in its resolution.

Olivar also caused undue injury to government in the transaction, the Ombudsman said.

The anti-graft law under Section 3(e) punishes a public officer for causing undue injury to government and giving undue advantage to a party  through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.

According to Section 3(h), it is considered a criminal offense for a public officer to have a direct or indirect financial or pecuniary interest in any business, contract or transaction which he or she intervened or took part   in connection with such interest./rga