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Watchdog committees vs corruption

   

PRESIDENT Arroyo called on her listeners in Monday’s Bishops’-Businessmen’s Conference for Human Development to help her get rid of corruption in government.

Businessmen should form watchdog committees to prevent anomalies in government transactions, she said. They are to report corrupt officials.

Corruption, she said, must be treated like an infected wound: "It must be healed by patient, constant, steady disinfecting, scraping, and cleaning.’’

* * *

She has yet to announce an agency which is to deal effectively with the reports of the watchdog committees.

There must be an anti-corruption czar to head this very laudable effort, to be on hand whenever a committee needs to talk to him.

He is presumed to have certain powers. He has to react effectively and credibly to the businessmen’s complaints.

* * *

Of course, the other thing is, if all goes well and the committees succeed in taking out, say, 50 grafters, then there is the need to replace them. There comes this splendid opportunity to finally have deserving persons take the place of the corrupt one.

With that, the need for the watchdog committees becomes even more acute. They are needed to screen the replacements.

They must be given the chance to scrutinize the President’s choices for replacements to make sure that misfits do not get in and make a mockery of their efforts.

* * *

If the President’s anti-corruption speech is to be taken seriously, even before the watchdog committees begin their search for the corrupt, they should already be made to screen the new appointments that come with the start of every new administration.

That should turn back accusations that having won the election, this is the payback time for the President, time to reward those who helped in her campaign and who either present themselves as job applicants or recommend relatives and friends for the good positions.

A good number of them may be misfits. If the President will allow her watchdog businessmen to help vet her appointments, thereby giving up some power in return for good government, that will make admirers out of some critics.





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