A success story (2)

Here’s more on the success story of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta), whose mandate is to simplify, speed up, and digitize business-related government services, and how the private sector can help.

In February 2020, Arta, together with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), launched the National Business One-Stop Shop (NBoss), which integrates the processes for business registration assigned to five frontline government agencies. The agencies are the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth, and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG). A year later, in January 2021, the joint memorandum circular covering the guidelines on the use of the Central Business Portal or the eBoss was launched. The online platform receives applications for business registration and other related transactions such as permits, licenses, and clearances. The eBoss drastically reduces the processing time from 30 days to one day of online registration.

Arta has also been active in easing the problems created by the pandemic, and has come up with streamlining and digitalization initiatives to expedite the delivery of government services. That initiative includes the creation of the Bayanihan One-Stop Shop for agencies involved in accreditation and logistics.

Several manuals have been developed as well. There’s the Whole of Government (WOG) Reengineering Manual, one on the Philippine Good Regulatory Principles (PGRP), and another on the New Rules of Procedures for Digital Handling of Cases. The WOG Manual discusses the whole-of-government approach to streamlining intra- and inter-agency processes, while the PGRP is a guide on promoting “proportionate, consistent, accountable, and targeted” regulations through communications between the regulator and stakeholders.

Arta also launched in October 2021 the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) Manual to ensure that regulations do not cause undue burden or cost to the transacting public by way of public consultation, and by providing a regulatory impact statement. Arta has been conducting training programs and capacity-building initiatives for government agencies as well in terms of assessing and developing regulations, determining their roles and responsibilities, and conducting an RIA.

Sanctioning erring government officials is also part of Arta’s success. So far, it has filed 526 cases against them before the Office of the Ombudsman, the Civil Service Commission, and trial courts. The bulk of these cases were filed against officials of the Food and Drug Administration (420) and the Land Transportation Office (78). Unfortunately, except for one case where the accused pleaded guilty to the charge, none of these cases has been resolved, a sad indictment of our judicial system.

Arta has succeeded where too many agencies, even entire departments, have failed. The next president should keep Arta director general Jeremiah Belgica and his career officials. I’d suggest Trade and Industry Secretary Mon Lopez too, but I suspect he’d rather return to the private sector. Or, more sensibly, retire after six years in a highly stressful 20-hours-a-day job.

I’d like to see the next administration not only continue the work of Arta, but expand it beyond business-related concerns. It can be the implementing arm of the DICT in designing the IT systems of government agencies. The digitization of government must be up there among the priorities of the next president. With the digital platform becoming the dominant ecosystem in the world, the Philippines can’t afford to be left behind.

Central to becoming part of this ecosystem is the universal personal ID. There should be a seamless connection between the citizen and the bureaucracy where personal interaction is minimized, preferably nonexistent. On this the government seems to be having trouble; progress has been slower than anticipated, with only 4.4 million Philippine identification (PhilID) cards delivered as of Dec. 10, 2021. The good news is that 50 million Filipinos have finished their biometrics registration. A similar card can be developed to identify businesses.

Assimilating all the numerous identification cards we need today (driver’s license, PhilHealth, and for us oldies, the senior citizen ID) into just one that integrates these different functions is a massive undertaking, and the government needs outside help to speed it up. A good start would be allowing private sector app developers to offer service subscriptions to national government agencies and local government units, an initiative that would earn them a revenue share as well from transaction fees. The aim is to steadily shift government’s digitalization paradigm from merely procuring hardware and creating applications from scratch, to buying software-as-a-service subscriptions.

Let’s hope the next administration gives us more success stories like that of Arta.

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