Government officials, including presidential appointees, face possible administrative and criminal charges if they continue to sit on pending transactions in their offices.
The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) is giving national agencies and local government units (LGUs) until March 7 to act on pending applications in their offices.
Jeremiah Belgica, director-general of ARTA said the agency has partnered with the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) for the conduct of a joint random compliance audit of all government offices, national and local, to ensure there would be no aging applications within each agencies pending beyond the prescribed processing times of three,7 or 20 days.
Belgica said ARTA has also given agencies until March 31 to submit their Citizen’s Charter, a document that details all of the frontline services, including step-by-step procedures showing the requirements, time, and fees involved for clients to get what they need.
“The (Ease of Doing Business or EODB Act) is here so there is no excuse for slow processes in agencies. We will not tolerate subpar services. EODB provides (timelines) for simple ,complex and highly technical (transactions) and should be acted upon in three, 7 and 20 days or they are deemed automatically approved. (Violation of such) may expose the government officer handling the application and the head of the agency to administrative and criminal liabilities,” Belgica said.
Belgica said quasi-judicial agencies are covered by this provision.
ARTA has flagged the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board for its perennial violations, and which has asserted such exemption.
ARTA also cited the Land Registration Authority as another laggard.
Belgica said processes in the Register of Deeds should not take long since the office’s functions are only ministerial.
“Filipinos are held hostage by the slow processing and never ending excuses,” he said.
Of the 4,667 government agencies, only 1,726 submitted their Citizen’s Charter. The rest, mostly local government units, have yet to submit.
