Assets were dissipated, PCGG chief admits
Florante S. Solmerin
Manila Standard
PROMISING greater transparency and accountability, the acting chief of the Presidential Commission on Good Government said the agency will avoid repeating mistakes that led to the mismanagement and dissipation of assets at the sequestered Philippine Communications Satellite Corp.
Narciso Nario, appointed by President Arroyo to the commission three years ago, said his predecessors had failed to implement checks and balances in monitoring and supervising appointed nominees in sequestered companies.
“This has been a lingering problem and the strange thing is that we don’t have direct supervision over these nominees, and yet we’ve so many of them sitting in the boards of so many sequestered and surrendered corporations,” Nario said.
“We’ll be closely watching now their activities so that the Philcomsat incident will not happen again. What happened to Philcomsat? Dissipation, mismanagement here and there.”
Nario said he would require all sequestered and surrendered corporations to submit an annual report of their financial status and operations to the commission.
“I will also suggest that there must be a representative from the PCGG in the audit committee and the executive committee,” he said.
“Now, in order to economize, I’m thinking of designating a PCGG director already there to act as member of the audit committee and executive committee to prevent any attempt to dissipate our assets. The committees of the PCGG should be informed of the daily status and conditions of these corporations. I’ll require them to submit their reports.”
In the spirit of transparency, Nario said, the complete list of appointed nominees would be posted on the agency’s bulletin board and copies would be furnished Malacañang and the office of the Justice secretary.
The President has the prerogative to appoint a nominee to represent the government in any sequestered and surrendered corporation.
These nominees usually sit as members of the board. Under the law, the President appoints them there, and because these are sequestered or surrendered assets, the commission is mandated to supervise them, including the nominees.
Nario said he had already scheduled consultations with nominees to the Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Corp., whose P4-billion, 350-hectare property in Mariveles, Bataan, is under sequestration.
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