Gov’t agencies cited for cutting red tape

MANILA, Philippines–The Civil Service Commission (CSC) last week awarded top-performing government agencies for their excellent delivery of frontline services minus the red tape.

The government offices were commended for their efforts to implement the Anti-Red Tape Act (Arta) in providing quality customer service to the public.

Chosen for the Arta Breakthrough Agency Award were the Land Bank of the Philippines, Commission on Higher Education, Philippine Health Insurance Commission, Department of Trade and Industry and the Public Attorney’s Office.

The five agencies were among the 132 offices awarded the Seal of Excellence from the Citizen Satisfaction Center following an evaluation of more than 1,000 offices based on their antired tape practices.

The assessment was based on the Report Card Survey, a mechanism under the Arta to gauge and evaluate the agencies’ frontline services.

Under the Report Card Survey, agencies are rated depending on the following numerical scores: 90 to 100 or excellent; 80 to 89.99 or good; 70 to 79.99 or acceptable; and 69.99 and below or failed.

Offices rated “excellent” are awarded the CSC Seal of Excellence.

The Report Card Survey has been utilized since 2010 to monitor acts of curbing red tape and to gauge citizens’ satisfaction with the quality of government services.

CSC Chair Francisco Duque III noted an improvement in the government’s campaign against red tape, with red tape-related complaints decreasing over the past year.

“We are now seeing concrete progress in the government’s campaign to fight red tape. We also saw a downward trend in the number of red tape-related complaints lodged through the Contact Center ng Bayan in the first half of 2014 compared to of 2013,” Duque said.

The awarding was done on Wednesday in Quezon City, during which the CSC also launched a coffee book titled “Breakthrough: Game-Changers in Public Frontline Service Delivery.”–Julie M. Aurelio