THE Commission on Audit has reprimanded a state auditor after finding her guilty of an administrative offense in relation to getting her own daughter hired as a job order personnel of the National Food Authority (NFA) — Occidental Mindoro on September 1, 2020.
In a four-page decision signed by COA Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba and Commissioners Roland Café Pondoc and Mario G. Lipana, the Commission Proper reprimanded the auditor with a stern warning and a similar infraction would be met with a more severe penalty.
“(A)s a guardian of public funds, a government auditor is expected to keep his/her personal integrity above and beyond suspicion. A government auditor’s official conduct should be free from all appearances of impropriety and indiscretion — above and beyond reproach,” the COA en banc said.
The respondent, whose name was redacted in the ruling, was only identified as a State Auditor III and the officer-in-charge/audit team leader assigned to the NFA Mamburao Provincial Office, NFA-Occidental Mindoro, National Irrigation Authority (NIA) – Occ. Mindoro Irrigation Management Office (OMIMO), and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) — Occ. Mindoro.
Records showed she was the subject of three separate complaints filed with the COA by a farmers group in Occidental Mindoro and suppliers of NIA-OMIMO.
The first complaint accused her of involvement in the buying and selling of palay in Mamburao and San Jose, Occidental Mindoro placing small farmers at a disadvantage.
The second complaint letter alleged that she was involved in a construction contract at a local government hospital for which she was supposedly paid commissions.
The third mentioned the hiring of the auditor’s daughter on a job order status at NFA-Occidental Mindoro.
A fact-finding inquiry by an investigation team dispatched by the COA found the first two complaints baseless but verified the allegations in the third one.
The NFA-Occidental Mindoro confirmed to investigators that it was the respondent auditor who requested additional personnel to assist the Auditor’s Office and that the daughter was hired as a JO worker.
Under Section 4 of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for COA Officials and Employees, recommending or facilitating the employment of a relative up to the fourth degree is strictly prohibited.
“This Commission finds substantial evidence that respondent violated the above provision. Records show that the respondent admitted that she ‘requested’ a JO worker while the originally assigned JO left the service to give birth. This request for additional workforce was corroborated by the NFA-Occidental Mindoro,” it noted.
While the respondent invoked good faith, the Commission swept aside her justification, noting that her actions did not arise from a lack of knowledge or unfamiliarity with existing rules.
“Good faith, as defined by the Supreme Court, is a state of mind denoting honesty of intention … to abstain from taking any unconscientious advantage of another, even though technicalities of law,” the Commission pointed out.
