PCGG advances in SWS anti-corruption survey

A recent survey by the Social Weather Station (SWS) on corruption as experienced and perceived in government offices showed that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) registered marked improvements.

The survey, which ran from November 14, 2014 to May 2, 2015, sought the views of business executives from 966 companies in the National Capital Region and six other major business areas.

It sought out the respondents’ experiences and perceptions of corruption in government offices.

Sincerity in fighting corruption was cited by business executives as key to the mostly favorable ratings given to the government agencies included in the survey.

Even the Bureau of Internal Revenue which had earned a below -50 mark in 2008 and 2009 climbed to a neutral -4 in 2014-15.

But the most notable improvement, the SWS report bared, is that of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, (PCGG) which went up from a poor -38 in 2009 to a moderate +15 in 2014-15.

Its accomplishment in the last three years supports the SWS 2014-15 survey findings that there has been “continued progress against corruption since 2013, after the quantum leap in 2012.”

From 2012-2014, PCGG copped the best performing agency award among the 11office Department of Justice cluster.

The PCGG, then headed by the current Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista, remitted a total of 56.6 billion in 2013 from the sale of the government’s 24 percent stake in San Miguel Corp. and generated an additional 13.5 billion in dividends from the SMC shares in the government-owned United Coconut Planters Bank.