by Jay Atty. Jay I. Dejaresco

The should be an investigation into reports of widespread corruption at the local government units (LGUs).
But there is no a wonder why corruption cannot not be suppressed until now.

We hear a recurrences of reports about local government executives, incumbent or retired, being indicted for corruption by the Ombudsman.

Investigation with the Ombudsman does not mean local government officials are corrupt, as every person is presumed innocent.

But we can hardly ignore these investigations as isolated incidents.

Recently, the local government of Makati, under the leadership of Binay Junior, has been slapped with criminal charges of corruption, stemming from overpricing of government projects.

This practice is not uncommon in the the many local government units all over the country.

The first step in finding out whether your local government is corrupt is to check with the reports of the Commission on Audit. That is a good starting point in finding out whether local government officials are engaged in corruption or not.

Reports categorize LGUs as “No. 1 on the graft list” on account of the highest number of graft and corruption cases filed against local public officials by the Ombudsman.

The scorecard showed that in 2014, for the fourth straight year, mayors and other local executives again topped the list of public officials who faced graft complaints with 2,053 cases filed by the Ombudsman.

Although those figures have improved from a high of 3,854 cases in 2011,the number still showed the serious extent of the problem that has been the No. 1 subject of complaints by the public and investors planning to do business in LGUs.

Corruption in the local level is bad for business, and more significantly bad for the populace.

Businessmen are often saddled by so much bureaucratic red tape in transacting business with LGUs where “facilitation fees” are required to facilitate the processing and approval of permits and other local requirements.

There is need to institute enduring structural reforms to cut red tape and ease doing business in LGUs, by simplifying procedures and promoting transparency in local government transactions, among others.

The establishment of a “one stop shop” and the computerization of government records have helped reduce the volume of red tape normally associated with government transactions in the past.

There is also a need to further improve the system to stop local officials from turning their localities like their private turfs, and eliminate the temptation of violating the laws because of personal and vested interests.