PROSECUTORS and state auditors will be deployed as resident ombudsmen to corruption-prone government agencies starting September, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said on Sunday.
The move will be covered by a still unsigned memorandum of agreement between the Department of Justice (DoJ), Office of the Ombudsman, and the Commission on Audit (CoA) to help the national government in its anti-corruption drive.
“The implementation of the (Ombudsman)-CoA-DoJ memorandum of agreement on the deployment of prosecutors and auditors as deputy ombudsmen in various agencies is targeted to start in September,” Mr. Guevarra said.
Mr. Guevarra said “the CoA annual audit reports will indeed provide a good starting point” for the investigation of resident ombudsmen.
Senators and congressmen have called on the Ombudsman to probe the alleged irregularities in the use of funds by some government agencies as flagged by CoA in its 2020 annual audit reports.
Mr. Guevarra said they “will take the cue from the Ombudsman” on the investigations.
“For now, we’ll let the government agencies called out by the CoA to comply with the latter’s recommendations, rectify any deficiencies found in their accounting records, and explain other audit observations made by the CoA on the use of government funds,” he said. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago