By Rio N. Araja

Quezon City treasurer Dr. Victor Endriga is calling the offer of the World Bank?to oversee its finances and stop unnecessary credit grants?when he retires on Aug. 17.

He said the post for a financial consultant was dangled last year to enforce guidelines in lending operations and disbursement of funds to various recipients.

?I attended a US study tour of World Bank and the United Nations, during which [its] representatives approached me and invited me to work for its operation,? he told Standard Today.

He said he begged off on the high-paying job in deference to present commitments.

?I was very ashamed to leave Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. I knew he wouldn?t like the idea,? said Endriga.

The carrot was not unexpected because the World Bank gave him the special recognition for being the only local taxman with a doctorate and ?the only Filipino who had finished a course in financial studies on taxation at the Harvard University.?

According to Endriga, the global institution has already felt the brunt of ?quick? disbursement loans in billions of pesos.

?World Bank told me it needed a person like me to correct the imbalance of disbursement and financial recovery, stabilize its investment operations, review policies and institute reforms.?

Endriga says he only has to wait until he packs up on Aug. 17 to leave government service.

He said both the Finance Department and Civil Service Commission have approved his second extension of office as Quezon City treasurer from Feb. 17 to Aug. 17 this year.

?My first extension is set to end tomorrow. That?s why the mayor requested Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to grant me another extension,? he said, adding that a third would need Malaca?ang?s approval.

?I am not inclined to seek another extension through presidential approval. I am considering the job availability being offered to me by World Bank,? he said.

?I am not the bookish type of person in implementing innovative tax schemes. I think I can help World Bank.?

Also a professor at the Lyceum University of the Philippines, Endriga is concurrent president of the Provincial and City Treasurers Association of the Philippines, representing 79 provinces and 210 cities.

Having served in various localities in the National Capital Region, he said all Metro Manila mayors, except Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, wanted to take him as their treasurer.

He was Pasig treasurer from 1992 to 2001. He started as a Manila tax inspector during the term of the late Mayor Ramon Bagatsing.

Spicing up his no-nonsense approach, Endriga said no holy cow deserved to be spared.

?I uncovered a P1.2-million tax case of relative of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos [and] was promoted at once as licensing chief.?