Senate Bill No. 348

Bam eyes to ‘reduce requirements & processing time’ in gov’t agencies

A senator has filed a measure that aims to reduce regulatory requirements that burden the public and businesses.
 
“Lengthy, complicated and overlapping regulations from various government agencies result in costly and time consuming processes that have inconvenienced far too many Filipinos for too long,” said Sen. Bam Aquino as he filed Senate Bill No. 348 or the Government Efficiency Office (GEO) Act of 2016.
 
 “Obtaining government I.D.s, paying taxes, requesting for necessary permits and other dealings with government leaves citizens frustrated, often pushing them to find extrajudicial avenues to fulfill requirements,” he added.
 
In case of businessmen, Sen. Bam pointed out that obtaining each necessary permit involves up to 30 steps aside from 47 tax payments to make each year, which consume an average of 193 business hours.
 
“These bureaucratic inefficiencies can lead to the failure of a fledgling business. It is no wonder the Philippines ranks 103rd out 189 countries in the Doing Business rankings by the World Bank,” the senator stressed.
 
To do away with regulatory barriers that hamper the nation’s growth and oppress Filipinos, the Government Efficiency Office Act seeks the creation of a special arm under the Office of the President that will be tasked to ensure efficiency in the existing and proposed regulations across government agencies.
 
This measure seeks to create a National Policy on the Development and Implementation of Regulations (NPDIR) to set policy­making principles and guidelines to be followed by all government agencies.
 
Under the measure, a Government Efficiency Office is mandated to implement the NPDIR. It will be tasked to review existing regulations and recommend their repeal, amendment or consolidation to relieve the public of the heavy burden of compliance.
 
With a streamlined regulatory procedure, Sen. Bam said individuals will be encouraged to comply with the law and make the market more accessible for businesses and MSMEs.
 
If enacted into law, Sen. Bam believes the Government Efficiency Office Act will contribute to President Rodrigo Duterte’s commitment to spare the public from hassles and delays in government transactions.
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