EODE

Red tape is the bane of our existence, so it’s good to know that the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) program is progressing well. Jeremiah Belgica at the Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) has done an amazing job in taking control of government processes when it comes to doing business, and improvement is happening. He’s cracking the whip and government agencies are, with a few exceptions that are being dealt with, complying. He and his team are looking into areas of inefficiency and fixing them.

In his State of the Nation Address, President Duterte complained of five agencies that weren’t doing their job. In response, Arta issued Notices to Explain to the agencies, and reforms have been initiated. The LTFRB had 3,120 pending applications, the FDA had 3,125, the SEC had four for accreditation. All agreed to give the automatic approval the law commands. All other government agencies have been told to give automatic approval of applications pending beyond the mandated deadlines of three, seven, and 20 days. Where they haven’t, cases have been filed against erring officials with the Office of the Ombudsman and the Civil Service Commission. So it’s now up to them as Arta can’t prosecute itself.

Arta has submitted policy recommendations to the different government agencies on how to streamline their business. It has launched a National Business One-Stop Shop (NBOSS), initially for single proprietorships, but soon for all businesses. It has also started a program for all agencies to reduce procedures and to reduce required documents by a whopping 52 percent.

In a recent board meeting, we agreed to create a rapid regulatory impact assessment support group to ensure that proposed regulations are not redundant, burdensome , or in conflict with national policies.

Some agencies can’t comply with Arta orders not because of reluctance, but because of lack of manpower and budget constraints. The Department of Budget and Management should issue an order to all agencies to allot 5 percent of their budget to implement EODB plans and programs—the same as they have done for gender and development programs.

To assist in the COVID-19 ECQ, Arta created a Bayanihan One Stop Shop for importation of critical COVID-19 commodities. On the urging of Arta, the FDA launched one document — electronic License to Operate (eLTO) — which allows the Bureau of Customs to immediately release goods. Some 71 eLTOs have been released so far. It also gave emergency extension for all permits, licenses, etc. that are expiring during the lockdown.

As this COVID-19 crisis highlights, what we really need now is an EODE — Ease of Doing Everything. The inability of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to get its act together in the first weeks of the lockdown due to overly strict and inessential bureaucracy led to millions not getting the money promised to them—or getting it much delayed. As of May 9, 2020, some 3 million of the 18 million beneficiaries have yet to receive their subsidy under the social amelioration program. And this is just the first tranche.

Mind you, one of the problems the DSWD faced wasn’t of its making. It was due to the inability of the Philippine Statistics Authority to give everyone, or, at least the family head, an ID. The government’s lack of experience in such a complex task meant that understandably government workers were learning as they went. And the solutions they were concluding were not the ideal ones. What they should do is tap the private sector under a PPP arrangement.

But the DSWD is not the only department or agency that needs streamlining, they all do. And in all actions they take, not just registering a business or processing licenses for it, but in all transactions involving both government dealing with the public and dealing with itself — agency to agency, department to department.

We need an Ease of Doing Everything Authority. And the simplest, most effective, and quickest way is to just amend the EODB law with a new title and put its operations under Arta, which has more than proved itself capable. It can still be called Arta because it’s all the red tape that hinders us from getting service.

Supporting this effort should be the Department of Information and Communications Technology. One of its principal tasks is to design, plan, and assist in implementing the computerization of all government services. All paper forms have to go; that includes signatures on paper, which are still required even for online transactions.

Time to computerize government and streamline it.

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