Friday, April 18, 2008 BIR monitors ranks to ensure transparency By Carlo P. Mallo
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is cleaning its ranks of erring employees and officials who made the tax-collecting agency as one of the most corrupt agencies of the government.
"We are closely monitoring our people. We are conducting lifestyle checks," lawyer Marcelinda Omila-Yap, chief of BIR 11, told Sun.Star Davao Thursday.
Yap said the public should also refrain from engaging in colluding with the officials and employees of the BIR, especially with revenue collecting officers.
He said part of their program is the regular briefing of all employees of BIR in order to remind them of their duties. This is to maintain transparency in all their transactions.
"Erring officials remain a problem in all government agencies, it is not a problem of BIR alone," he said.
Moreover, he said there was one BIR 11 official who is now facing charges of graft and corruption.
"The case has already been forwarded to Manila," he said.
At present, no official from BIR 11 has been the subject of any investigation, he added.
