Section 47Sec./Art. 47

Constructive distraint of property of accountable Office.

1. Upon the discovery in audit of a shortage in the accounts of any accountable officer and upon a finding of a prima facie case of malversation of public funds or property against him, in order to safeguard the interest of the Government, the Commission may place under constructive distraint personal property of the accountable officer concerned where there is reasonable ground to believe that the said officer is retiring from the government service or intends to leave the Philippines or remove his property therefrom or hide or conceal his property.

The constructive distraint shall be effected by requiring the accountable officer concerned or any other person having possession or control of the property to accomplish a receipt in the form prescribed by the Commission, covering the property distrained and obligate himself to preserve the same intact and unaltered and not to dispose of it in any manner whatever without the express authority of the Commission.

2. In case the said accountable officer or other person having the possession and control of the property sought to be placed under constructive distraint refuses or fails to accomplish the receipt herein referred to, the representative of the Commission, effecting the constructive distraint shall proceed to prepare a list of such property and in the presence of two witnesses leave a copy thereof in the premises where the property distrained is located after which the said property shall be deemed to have been placed under the constructive distraint.

CHAPTER 3

DECISIONS OF THE COMMISSION