By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
“We walk our talk.”
As the government’s chief watchdog against redundancies and inefficiencies in various transactions, the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) continues to enforce its mandate against bureaucracy by ensuring that other agencies deliver responsive services to the citizenry.
In a Malacañang briefing on Monday, ARTA Secretary Ernesto Perez shared President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s acclaim for his agency’s efforts to minimize delays and streamline processes as reflected in the latest accomplishment report.
Secretary Perez expounded, “Significant decrease, in fact, even President Marcos [Jr.], in his message to ARTA, in our accomplishment report, recognized the big role that ARTA is doing towards improving service efficiency. Cases that were filed with us almost mga more than 90 percent are resolved.”
The ARTA chief likewise noted the proactive approach implemented by the agency in working with government offices to resolve complaints raised by the clients, thus further contributing to the decline in red-tape cases.
In its latest report, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) currently ranks as the most complained-about agency, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has shown improvement, moving from the top spot to third place.
Secretary Perez, however, clarified that the high volume of complaints cannot be simply blamed on systemic inefficiency alone, noting that the most-complained-about agencies are also the ones handling significant volumes of transactions regularly.
To better address the points of contention raised by the common folk on government services, ARTA continues to double down on ways to gather citizen feedback.
These include the electronic complaint management system integrated in the eGov Super app of the DICT, as well as the virtual assistant “Tala”—a 24/7 chatbot that speaks fluently in English, Tagalog, and 17 other local dialects.
The ARTA chief concluded, “At itong ating ginagawa using digitalization, streamlined and digitalization process, so that we make it easier for people to have access to government service, conducting regular orientations, briefings, and conducting on-the-spot and regular inspections.”
jpv
