EDITORIAL - Red tape list

As the year draws to an end, the Anti-Red Tape Authority has released a list of government agencies with the greatest number of complaints from the public. While the ARTA list covers January to October, the results will likely be consistent even if the last two months of the year will be included.

For national government agencies, the Food and Drug Administration garnered the highest number of complaints. Close on the heels of the FDA were the Land Transportation Office and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Rounding out the worst 10 were the Philippine Statistics Authority, Land Registration Authority, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bureau of Customs.

Among government-owned and controlled corporations, the Social Security System got the most number of complaints, followed by Pag-IBIG Fund, the Government Service Insurance System, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Philippine Health Insurance Corp., Philippine Postal Corp., National Housing Authority, Land Bank of the Philippines, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

ARTA said most of the complaints were for long waiting times and slow processing. These are weaknesses in the agencies’ systems that can be remedied.

Two laws have been passed to cut red tape and promote ease of doing business. The first was Republic Act 9485, the Anti-Red Tape Act passed in June 2007. This was amended in May 2018 by RA 11032, the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act.

RA 11032 created ARTA, attached to the Office of the President. The law requires government agencies to complete transactions with the government within three days for simple services, seven for complex matters and 20 days for technical issues. The law also promotes a policy of zero human-to-human contact between government agency personnel and those accessing state services.

As in many laws in this country, much is lost in the implementation. Even Rodrigo Duterte, who throughout his presidency harped on the need to speed up the processing of transactions with the government, failed to instill fear in the hearts of those who have long profited from designing systems that will compel people to pay “facilitation fees” or grease money to get things done.

Duterte openly tagged the agencies that he described as the most corrupt. His list reflected the agencies that have consistently emerged as the most corrupt in surveys by different pollsters, including the Department of Public Works and Highways and the revenue-generating agencies.

Agencies on the list released by ARTA are not being tagged for corruption. But bottlenecks and red tape open opportunities for graft. ARTA’s list should serve as a challenge for the agencies to serve the public as seamlessly as possible.