MANILA — The National Printing Office (NPO) on Wednesday launched its One-Stop Shop meant to cut the number of steps clients would have to go through to secure accountable and non-accountable forms used in government transactions.
“In the past, our clients have to go through several divisions in different floors. With the One-Stop Shop, we cut down redundant activities to only three steps,” NPO Engineering Division Acting Chief Neil Macaraeg told reporters in an interview.
Macaraeg said the construction of the One-Stop Shop took about three months and required a budget of PHP8 million.
The opening of the One-Stop Shop coincided with the 117th anniversary of the NPO, an agency under the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) led by Secretary Martin Andanar.
Andanar, the guest of honor at the event, welcomed the opening of the One Stop-Shop as just one of the many improvements within the agency, and expressed hope that the brand new NPO office would inspire its employees to perform better.
“When I first visited the office in 2016, it didn’t have air-conditioners, it didn’t have LEDs, it didn’t have its own stage. Now, it has all of that and a workplace and environment like this will inspire any worker,” he said.
Also present during the event were Radio-Television Malacañang Executive Director Dennis Wilfred Pabalan, Philippine Broadcasting Service Director General Rizal Giovanni “Bong” Aportadera, Civil Service Commission-National Capital Region Director II Noel Salumbides, and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, among others.
Meanwhile, Macaraeg said the NPO will acquire four additional printing machines by yearend as part of the agency’s effort to modernize its production capabilities.
Last June, the NPO released a three-year strategic road map to help the NPO move forward in terms of promoting its brand quality service, expanding market base, and reinforcing capability, among others.
Earlier, Andanar said he is hopeful that the printing of the national identification cards would be a task assigned to government printers and not the private sector.
“We are the printing agency of the government. Under the rules and regulations, projects like this should be assigned to registered government printing agencies,” Andanar said.
Aside from the NPO, the two other government printers are the Asian Productivity Organization Production and the security printing plant of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Macaraeg said the NPO is more than ready to undertake the task of printing IDs as part of its mandate to accept other government printing jobs, including government publications, but not on an exclusive basis.
The NPO also provides printing of official ballots and election paraphernalia.
“Secretary Andanar’s suggestion is good news. It’s our mandate to print IDs. The NPO is capable of printing IDs,” Macaraeg said. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
