Arroyo signs Anti-Red Tape Act

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has signed into law the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 that aims to reduce red tape in the bureaucracy, hastens transactions in the government and provides stiffer penalties for those engaging in graft and corruption, Malacañang said Sunday. Under Republic Act 9485, which Mrs Arroyo signed on June 2, transactions in government like the application or renewal of permits, licenses, and other documentation, should be completed in five working days for simple cases and 10 working days for more complex transactions or requests. The law also states that each agency must reply to the client, even if their requests had been rejected or could not be processed, including the explanations why it was rejected and what they could do to refile their requests. Signatories in each documents had also been limited to a maximum of five persons, to further reduce the time and simplify procedures. The Anti-Red Tape Act also directs agencies, including government owned and controlled institutions, and financial institutions to come up with a citizen's charter that would serve as a guideline in the conduct of employees' duty. The citizen's charter also details the procedures involve in transacting with the government, including the types of services offered by an agency, the persons responsible for each service, the requirements one need to obtain the service, the length of time to deliver such service, fees to be paid and procedures in case of complaints. Each agency is also required to put up a public assistance-complaints' desk. The law also states that those who refuse to accept applications or requests of a client, fails to act on the application or requests, attend to the clients' needs, fails to give written notice of disapproval of application or requests, and/or impose additional irrelevant requirements maybe penalized for a lighter offense. The penalties for lighter offense includes: a 30-day suspension without pay and a mandatory attendance to a value orientation program for the first offense; while a second offense is meted out with a three-month suspension without pay; and a third offense is penalized with dismissal and perpetual disqualification from public service. Those who are proven to commit grave offense like engaging in "fixing" or working with fixers shall be penalized by dismissal and perpetual disqualification from public service. They may also be charged criminally where the penalties include imprisonment of up to six year, a fine from P20,000 to P200,000, or both fine and imprisonment depending on the decision of the court. They could also be charged with civil and administrative liabilities wherein the administrative charges shall be handled by the Civil Service Commission, the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission or the office of the Ombudsman. - GMANews.TV