Palace: BIR life-style test on gov’t officers ongoing

MANILA – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) remains to be conducting life-style checks on authorities officers, over a month after President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. ordered the audit in response to alleged anomalies in flood management spending.

Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro confirmed on Tuesday that the bureau has began finishing up the President’s directive.

“Inutos na po sa BIR at ngayon po ay ongoing po ang ginagawa pong lifestyle check (BIR has been tasked to do the audit, and the lifestyle checks are ongoing),” Castro instructed reporters in a Palace press briefing.

She stated the Palace couldn’t present a timeline for when preliminary findings could be launched.

Malacañang first introduced the life-style audit order on Aug. 27, weeks after the President bared in his final State of the Nation Address the allegations of irregularities in flood management tasks—amongst them splitting of contracts, bloated costing, contractor collusion, and ghost tasks.

The transfer got here alongside the creation of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to analyze public works spending, and the activation of the Sumbong sa Pangulo complaints platform.

Castro stated reviews obtained by means of the web site, now numbering over 19,000 entries, are being validated and forwarded to the ICI.

The Palace has but to reveal what number of officers are at the moment below monetary scrutiny or whether or not contractors may even be included within the audit. (PNA)