How to erase a paper trail
A mere letter also cannot beat a law. So which line of this year’s budget law lets money go out with no request? And which pot will it come from?
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Daily Tribune
A mere letter also cannot beat a law. So which line of this year’s budget law lets money go out with no request? And which pot will it come from?
A certain office that guards the nation’s purse has a new rule. It can now send money to cover pay gaps in other offices without waiting for anyone to ask.
The change was sold as plain good sense. A top official said it follows the boss’s order to pay workers what they are owed on time.
But a clean front can hide a crooked side.
Under the old way, an office had to ask, fill out forms, and sign. It was slow and dull, but a name sat on every request. If money went missing, someone was to blame.
Under the new way, a computer lists the sums and the money moves on its own. A list cannot be blamed, and a computer is only as honest as the people who feed it. Offices must update the list once a month, but the rule does not say who checks it against real payroll or against the records of who was truly hired.
If a post is filled on paper but is empty in real life, or a name stays long after the worker has left, the formula will fill a gap that exists. Then real money goes out for a fake need. The country has seen ghost workers before, so the worry is not far-fetched.
Worse, an office could short its own pay lines on purpose, knowing the center will fill the hole. That turns the rule into a side door for spending no lawmaker approved.
The law of the land says no public money may leave the treasury unless a law allows it. Moving funds is allowed only in rare cases, and only by named officials. Judges have said as much twice, in cases involving lawmakers’ pet funds and a fast-spending scheme. Speed, they said, is no excuse for blurring who holds the purse.
A mere letter also cannot beat a law. So which line of this year’s budget law lets money go out with no request? And which pot will it come from?
The timing also stinks. The rule covers only fixed items such as salaries, allowances, bonuses, and the state’s share of workers’ benefit funds. It covers gaps up to the end of September. New hires, promotions, and other changes after that date still need a request. The rule came out weeks before the year-end bonus and cash gift, when the sums are biggest and the time to check is shortest.
No one has said yet whether the office will post each release, office by office, so auditors and the press can follow the money. There is no word either on how auditors will check on the money nobody asked for.
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