TWO members of the House of Representatives have expressed support to a proposal that would compel government officials and employees to sign a waiver for full audit of their finances.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles and Western Samar Rep. Mel Sarmiento said that for transparency and graft-free government, it is better if the officials and employees will be exempted from existing laws on bank secrecy including accounts covering dollar deposits.

The two lawmakers said that this waiver holds the key in dismantling the remaining legal stumbling blocks in the quest for a clean and graft-free government.

Earlier, Sen. Francis Escudero filed Senate Bill 107 which would require “public officials and employees to submit a written permission or waiver in favor of the Ombudsman to look into all deposits of whatever nature with banks or banking institutions both within and outside the Philippines including investment bonds issued by the government of the Philippines, its political subdivisions and instrumentalities and providing penalties there for.”

However, the lawmakers said that this proposal, if passed into law, should contain all the necessary safeguards to ensure that this waiver will not be indiscriminately used for one’s personal agenda.

“There should be a limit for this waiver. This could also be a potential tool to serve one’s selfish personal agenda,” Nograles stressed.