The Department of Finance (DOF) on Tuesday implemented the separate rulings of the Office of the Ombudsman that recommended the dismissal from service an officer of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and two municipal treasurers.
Secretary Carlos Dominguez III directed BOC Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon to dismiss from the service Customs Operations Officer Khalid Minoao Calandada.
Calandada was ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman based on charges filed against him last year by the DOF-Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS).
He was found guilty of serious dishonesty for his repeated failure to declare certain properties and misleading declarations in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) from 2008 to 2014.
“Deliberate assertions of falsehood made under oath led it to uncover the following: that he was able to acquire a Mitsubishi Montero Sport, a .45 caliber pistol, a shotgun, and incurred bank and personal loans of over P6 million –all of which he had failed to declare in his annual SALNs,” the Ombudsman said in its ruling.
Calandada’s eligibility was also recommended cancelled by the Ombudsman including the forfeiture of his retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
He was also barred from taking the civil service examinations.
Dominguez also instructed Executive Director Nino Raymond Alvina of the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) to also remove municipal treasurers Ananie Raluto of Zamboanga del Sur and Eddie Rodriguez of Occidental Mindoro from the government ranks.
Another municipal treasurer, Carlos Bengil of South Cotabato, was ordered suspended from office for one month.
The Ombudsman found Raluto, who was the municipal treasurer and chairperson of the Bids and Awards Committee of Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur, liable for dishonesty and grave misconduct for being one of the parties involved in the purchase of 3,332 bottles of liquid foliar fertilizer without the benefit of public bidding and overpriced by as much as P4.09 million, according to the Ombudsman’s findings.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, in his capacity as assistant municipal treasurer of Santa Cruz Occidental Mindoro, was found guilty of grave misconduct after the Ombudsman found him to have had an “indirect financial and pecuniary interest” in the procurement of P1.9 million worth of petroleum product s from the private firm R4 Fuel, which is owned by his mother Lydia.
The Ombudsman also found out that R4 Fuel was able to bag the contract for supplying the Santa Cruz municipal government with fuel and other oil products sans any public bidding or other approved alternative modes of procurement allowed under the law.
Bengil was recommended suspended from the office by the Ombudsman for one month for simple neglect of duty when found to have made “an error in judgment” in subscribing to the purchase of P1.8 million worth of fertilizer for the municipality of Norala in South Cotabato without conducting any competitive public bidding for its procurement.
“With just four-and-a-half months into the Duterte administration, Dominguez has so far taken punitive action against 14 employees under DOF’s supervision for various offenses, ranging from simple neglect of duty to grave misconduct, based on the results of separation investigations by the Ombudsman,” the DOF said in a statement on Tuesday.
Earlier, the DOF secretary ordered the implementation of penalties ranging from dismissal from the service to suspension without pay against eight municipal treasurers and two other Customs employees.
