Secretary Jeremiah Belgica, Director General of the Anti-Red Tape Authority, stressed the importance of public assistance desks in government offices as the agency resumed its inspections on Tuesday.
Belgica said a number of the complaints that the Authority received would be resolved if adequately-staffed public assistance desks were established in the concerned government agencies.
This, after the Anti-Red Tape Secretary saw that there was no one manning the public assistance desk at the National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS). Belgica found the same issue when he went to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for inspection.
Republic Act No. 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018 mandates each government office and agency to establish Public Assistance/Complaints Desks in each of their offices.
“Huwag po natin pabayaan ‘yung public assistance desk,” Belgica told reporters.
“Normally, marami sa complaints na dumarating sa desk, masosolusyonan kung may public assistance desk,” he added.
For their part, Dr. Jocelyn Salvador, Executive Director of NMIS, said they had to move their public assistance desk outside of the building as part of their health and safety protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Salvador also admitted to struggling with their lack of manpower. Per the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, only 30 to 50 percent of the capacity of work forces should physically report to work.
“We welcome all these findings, we continuously try to improve our systems,” she said.
“We try to keep on improving kasi client-based din kami, napakarami naming kliyente both sa industriya and sa aming internal stakeholders,” she added. “We don’t want to compromise health but we also want to address the facilitation of business.”
Aside from NMIS and SRA, the Authority also visited the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) while advance inspection teams were deployed at other offices of the Department of Agriculture (DA), including the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), and the Aquatic Resources-Fisheries Inspection and Quarantine Division (BFAR-FIQD).
Prior to this, ARTA officials paid a courtesy visit at the DA.
ARTA is set to conduct more inspections in the following days.
During their visits, Belgica reminded government agencies to continue collaborating with one another for a more unified effort against red tape.
They also encouraged government agencies to report to ARTA if ever they experience any problems in streamlining their systems for the speedy processing of applications and requests. (ARTA) – rir
