Promoting greater transparency and accountability through intensified rules on the filing of the statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN)

• Main Author: Hiceta, Vanessa Ann A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2016
• Subjects: Transparency in government—Law and legislation—Philippines; Government accountability—Philippines; Administrative Law; Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6784
• Institution: De La Salle University

A great number of countries around the world have introduced systems of asset declaration for public officials and employees in order to help minimize or totally combat corruption. This practice of declaring the government official or employee’s assets, liabilities and net worth serves a dual purpose: It contributes to the protection of public interest; and it boosts public confidence in the integrity of the government. However, asset declaration will only achieve its goals if observed faithfully and truthfully by committed public servants and close monitoring by citizens. A well-designed and operational system of asset declaration, on one hand, will ensure the overall anti-corruption advocacy of a country and will further promote accountability and integrity. The Philippines’ current initiatives to combat corruption practices and catch fraudulent officials have several limitations that eventually lead to their failure. Despite the Philippines’ efforts in curtailing this disease, our system of asset declaration has not yielded tangible results in reducing corruption as compared to other countries, likely due to many implementation gaps, lack of clear guidelines that assess the accuracy of declarations, and lack of guidelines that identify the course of action for handling public officials with excessive wealth that cannot be properly accounted for. We have too many laws but we fail to implement them properly.