Public asked to help gov’t fight graft, corruption

MANILA, Philippines - The Civil Service Commission (CSC) appealed to the public yesterday to help the Aquino administration in its fight against graft and corruption by sending fixers to jail.

Through Republic Act 9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007, a relatively new law, fixers could be placed behind bars for as long as six years and fined as much as P200,000.

If the fixer is a government employee, stiffer penalties could be imposed because apart from criminal liability, an administrative case will be filed against them punishable by dismissal from the service.

“If it is proven that a person is engaged in fixing activities, he could pay a fine not less than P20,000 but no more than P200,000 and/or face imprisonment of no more than six years,” CSC chairman Francisco Duque III said the other day.

“That is the criminal aspect on top of the administrative penalty if you are a government official or employee, which is dismissal,” he told The STAR.

Duque said fixing activities were criminalized only under the ARTA Law, which was enacted by Congress five years ago.

He explained that RA 9485 defines a fixer as any individual, whether or not officially involved in the operation of a government office or agency, who has access to people working therein and whether or not in collusion with them facilitates speedy completion of transactions for pecuniary gain or any other advantage or consideration.

Duque, in earlier interviews, emphasized that fixers, while they might be able to actually help a person in one way or the other, are actually destroying the system and its processes.

He explained that if one person gets to have his papers processed faster for a fee, how would that be fair to those who do not have money to pay the fixers.

The recent efforts of the CSC to improve the delivery of frontline services in government offices nationwide have placed the ARTA Law in the limelight.

Duque started last week the surprise inspection of government agencies that failed last year’s anti-red tape test, beginning with the Rizal Medical Center (RMC) in Pasig and the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) in Mandaluyong.

The RMC and the NCMH flunked the ARTA Report Card Survey (RCS) released recently by the CSC.

“It appears that the anti-red tape survey is very effective. Many are really trying to comply with a sense of urgency,” said Duque, noting that the publication of the names of the 150 government offices that failed had been effective in jolting them into addressing non-compliance issues.

“It’s really good that we’re doing this, I’m going to do this every week. Somebody’s got to do that, we can’t just be talking about it,” he added.

Duque said he feels that the CSC should be the one to monitor efficient frontline service delivery in government agencies towards the goal of good governance, which the Aquino administration is actively fighting for.

Under the ARTA Law, government agencies offering frontline services are required to serve their clients during the one-hour noon break, which was one of the reasons why many government offices failed the test.

The ARTA also prescribes agencies to install a Citizen’s Charter in the form of a billboard that informs transacting clients on the requirements, steps, fees, and other pertinent information on the frontline services that can be availed of from the agency.

Duque earlier said that the government offices that failed the anti-red tape test would be subjected to corrective intervention initiatives by the CSC by way of a service delivery excellence program.

“We will enjoin them (to comply), it’s mandatory, because it’s a rule of law. These are the provisions of the law and we have to comply, we have to follow the law,” he said.