Snags in ease of doing business
Ahead of the implementation of Republic Act No. 11032 (or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act), two government offices have expressed concern about their capability to comply with the deadlines on the processing of government transactions.
The law requires applications or requests that are highly technical in nature to be processed within 20 working days or such period that may be determined by the government office concerned, whichever is shorter.
That period may be extended only once for the same number of days on condition that the applicant or requesting party is notified in writing of the extension and the final date of the release of the government service requested.
The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) and Intellectual Property Office (IPO) find these time frames constricting because, by their reckoning of the nature of their work, they cannot process transactions within 40 working days.
In an interview, PCC Chair Arsenio Balisacan said PCC’s review of mergers and acquisitions could exceed the maximum processing period if the transaction is complicated.
The IPO, which registers patents and copyrights for new inventions and other forms of registrable intellectual property, said the registration process usually takes six months to complete.
The two offices have to take up their concerns with the Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta), the body created to enforce the law, as soon as its members are appointed by President Duterte.
The Arta is tasked with fleshing out the provisions of the law and issuing the implementing rules and regulations after consultations with some government offices.
Offhand, the PCC and the IPO may find themselves in a bind if the processing periods stated in the law are strictly enforced.
The applications they process are not the run-of-the-mill or vanilla type that can be acted upon through the use of templates or software applications that can be activated at the flick of a finger.
It is doubtful, however, if they can get an exemption from the deadlines set because no provisions have been made in the law for that purpose, and the Arta cannot fill up that void through the implementing rules and regulations it will issue.
Bottom line, the PCC and the IPO (and other government offices that, from their point of view, are similarly situated) have no choice but to process applications and service requests with their offices within 40 working days from the submission of the required documents.
To enable them to cope with this responsibility, they have to review their existing procedures and documentation requirements to eliminate the nonessentials, and retrain their staff on the efficient and speedy evaluation of government transactions. The office staffs, not the law, have to adjust to the situation.
In the case of the PCC, for example, requests for operational and financial information from the companies involved in a merger may be limited to those that are truly significant in determining whether or not fair competition will be adversely affected by the proposed combination.
The audited financial statements of the companies and their reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the bourse (if they are listed) and the government regulatory office that supervises their operation may be sufficient to determine the merits or demerits of the merger.
Aside from bureaucratic procedures, the delay in the processing of highly technical transactions with government offices can also be traced to, among others, unclear checklist of documentary requirements, misleading instructions, laxity in the enforcement of deadlines and inefficient personnel.
There should be no room for exemptions, and none should be granted, in complying with the processing periods prescribed by the law. Give an exemption to a government office from the deadlines for one reason or another, expect other government offices to ask for a similar treatment.
The implementation of the law will require major adjustments not only in the processes of government offices, but more so on the work attitude of their staff.
