Bureaucratic red tape

IN RESPONSE to President Duterte’s instructions to his Cabinet to reduce public inconvenience in doing business with the government, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III recently named Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran as “Anti-Red Tape Czar” of his department and its attached agencies.

Beltran has been tasked to reduce the number of steps and documentary requirements in “paying taxes, getting tax refunds, acquiring tax exemption certificates, getting imports released, shipping out exports, registering a business and getting appointments with public officials.”

Many of the processes and procedures that Beltran will have to review and assess have been in place for decades, some even dating back to the early years of our republic.

In this mission, Beltran should expect opposition, if not outright hostility, from different levels of the finance department, especially the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BoC).

The BIR and BoC have been described by the President as two of the most corrupt government offices—a description the public also shares and for justifiable reasons.

For some of the employees of these offices, red tape is a blessing: It provides opportunities to make lots of (dirty) money at the expense of the government and the people doing business with them.

Charter

Cutting, or minimizing, red tape in government has been part of the program of every administration.

In line with this objective, in 2007, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 9485, or the “Anti-Red Tape Act”, which seeks to improve efficiency in the delivery of government service to the public by reducing bureaucratic red tape and preventing graft and corruption.

The law requires, among others, government offices that perform frontline services, i.e., handle applications for any privilege, right, permit, reward, license, concession, or requests that are acted upon in their ordinary course of business, to post a Citizen’s Charter at the entrance of their offices that describes the procedures to obtain a particular service and the documents needed for that purpose.

Even the manner of filing complaints against employees who fail to perform their work properly has to be shown in that material.

These, and other requirements, are aimed at providing the public with quality government service as soon as possible with the least inconvenience, expense or hassle.

To ensure compliance with the law, administrative penalties, fines and imprisonment shall be imposed for its violation depending on the nature of the subject transaction and the gravity of the offense.

Consequences

There was a lot of hoopla after the law was enacted and its implementing rules and regulations were issued by the Civil Service Commission. The Citizen’s Charter was treated like a magic wand that would reduce red tape and ensure the prompt delivery of government service to the public.

After an initial burst of efficiency, however, it was back to “normal” in government offices. Except for a handful of offices whose leadership took to heart the intention of the law, the same old red tape problems reared their ugly heads.

The situation may have gone from bad to worse that then candidate Rodrigo Duterte included it in his list of things to attend to in case he is elected president.

It’s a big question mark whether any government official or employee has been found guilty for violating that law and punished accordingly. We have yet to hear or read about that happening since the law was enacted nine years ago.

The usual excuse given to justify the lengthy, tedious and paper-heavy processes in government transactions is it is required by law and its implementing regulations.

To an extent, that is true, but the reality on the ground is the burdensome procedures are often internally-generated, i.e., were conceived or thought of by the head of the government office.

Responsibility

By way of an example, in an application for a business license or permit, what supporting documents should be submitted, who should evaluate them, who should review the evaluation, whose initials or signatures should appear in the attachments, and whose signature should complete the process are internal procedures drawn up by the supervisor of the bureau or agency.

The Big Boss who does not think the people under him can be relied upon to make the right decisions will insist that he, or his executive assistant, have the final word on all transactions that go through their office, except probably for the most mundane or run of the mill.

In a highly centralized government office, where middle level managers or supervisors are reduced to the status of glorified clerks and the signing authority limited to a few, bureaucratic red tape is inevitable.

The refusal of some government executives to delegate their authority, or empower their subordinates to make decisions within their areas of expertise, is often traceable to egotistic (or power tripping) reasons, or to make sure the extra privileges and benefits that accrue to their position do not find their way in other desks.

When bureaucratic red tape is the norm in a government office, whether by design or negligence, expect the fixers to have a field day.

Beltran will have to step on a lot of toes if he wants to accomplish the objectives of his assignment.

If he is able to accomplish only one half of his mission, he will earn the eternal gratitude of the business community.

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