Angara urges Congress to pass anti-red tape measure

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Edgardo Angara has urged his colleagues in the 15th Congress to pass the “Anti–Red Tape Law” in order to address worsening bureaucratic red tape in the country.

Through the Anti–Red Tape Law, Angara said all agencies and offices that provide frontline services are required to regularly undergo evaluation and modernization of their transaction systems and procedures.

If passed into law, the measure will speed up transactions in government offices by limiting the action time on simple and complex transactions. It will also limit the signatories of documents to the officers and employees directly supervising the office where a particular transaction is being acted upon.

“I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pursue this because it will ensure the efficient and effective delivery of government services by simplifying procedures as opposed to burdensome and complex regulations,” said Angara, saying this is in response to President Aquino’s call to speed up the business in the country during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month.

The proposed law would require immediate action in the handling of government transactions and consequently will curb opportunities for graft and corruption.

Angara, president of the Southeast Asia Parliamentarians Against Corruption (SEAPAC), noted that bureaucratic red tape is one of the biggest deterrent to investment. “Many government offices over-regulate and unnecessarily lengthen the procedures for securing basic government services. Worse, some government employees require “informal payments” or bribes, more commonly known as “lagay,” as a condition to any action or request,” Angara said.

Angara, who is also the author of Ombudsman Law and the Government Procurement Reform Act, the biggest anti-corruption law in the country, red tape has gravely affected the efficient delivery of government services.

 “This well-founded perception of inertia of government agencies and offices has not only frustrated the delivery of vital government services to the public, it has also made potential investors hesitant about doing business in the country,” he said.

Because of red-tape and corruption, Angara lamented that the country showed poor performance in terms of opening and closing businesses, ranking 140th out of 181 in the Doing Business 2009 survey.