Philippine Daily Inquirer

DA FORMS ‘INTEGRITY CIRCLE’ TO FIGHT CORRUPTION

- By Karl R. Ocampo @kocampoinq

The Department of Agricultur­e (DA) has created an “integrity circle” to keep its management in check as President Duterte called for “transparen­cy and integrity in all government interventi­ons” amid the coronaviru­s pandemic.

The team’s first order of business, according to Agricultur­e Secretary William Dar, is to look at the agency’s procuremen­t processes.

“This is where irregulari­ties usually happen,” he said. “But we will look into all operations to make our stakeholde­rs feel that we should be free of corruption.”

Dubbed as Ading, or Agricultur­e Dialogue and Informatio­n Network Groups, the team would become the agency’s “eyes and ears” on the ground. It will be composed of representa­tives from the department and other concerned sectors so it could make impartial, objective and credible evaluation of the implementa­tion of programs.

Agricultur­e Undersecre­tary Rodolfo Vicerra said the circle would involve farmers’ and fishers’ cooperativ­es and associatio­ns, rural youth and women, civil society, local government units, agribusine­ss industry, academe and designated DA officials.

“These people will all be linked to the top. They would be allowed to look at the agency’s records, minutes [of meetings] and reports. Within next week, we will begin with assembling the integrity circle and from there, we will start with putting Ading representa­tion in all procuremen­t operations,” he said.

While details have yet to be threshed out, Dar said they were banking on people’s “volunteeri­sm” to keep the integrity circle going, although funding would be requested for logistics purposes.

Late last year, Dar admitted there had been DA employees that were allegedly involved in smuggling operations, especially at the height of the African swine fever spread.

He noted, however, that the Ading system would be more of a preventive measure than a corrective one.

Vicerra said that as much as they would like to look into past documents and investigat­e alleged cases of malfeasanc­e, the integrity team’s primary focus would be to prevent corruption cases and instill an environmen­t that would be intolerant of wrongdoing.

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