Directing the Submission of Freedom of Information (FOI) Reports

October 2, 2018 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 045-18 TO : All Regional Directors, Revenue District Officers and Concerned Officers in the BIR National Office SUBJECT : Directing the Submission of Freedom of Information (FOI) Reports I. Background The People's Freedom of Information (FOI) Manual, which was circularized by Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 75-2017 dated September 20, 2017, requires, under Section 4 thereof, that there shall be an FOI Receiving Officer (FRO), with a rank not lower than Revenue Officer IV or its equivalent, designated at the following BIR Offices that regularly render "frontline services": HTcADC 1. All Regional Offices and all its Divisions, except Administrative Divisions and Document Processing Division (for Regions with DPD) 2. All Revenue District Offices 3. All Divisions under Large Taxpayers Service, except LT Document Processing & Quality Assurance Division 4. Public Information and Education Division 5. Accounts Receivable Monitoring Division 6. Collection Programs Division 7. Miscellaneous Operations Monitoring Division 8. Law and Legislative Division 9. International Tax Affairs Division 10. Appellate Division 11. National Investigation Division 12. Audit Information, Tax Exemption and Incentives Division 13. VAT Credit Audit Division CAIHTE Moreover, Section 11 of the FOI Manual requires that the FOI Receiving Officers (FROs) must keep a record of all FOI requests received by him/her and shall make a monthly inventory thereof. This Order is issued to set forth the guidelines in the submission of the Agency Information Inventory, FOI Registry and FOI Summary Reports (collectively referred to as FOI Reports) as prescribed in FOI Memorandum Circular (FOI-MC) No. 1 s. 2018 issued by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO). II. Preparation and Submission of FOI Reports by FROs aScITE The concerned Offices, including the Records Management Division and LT Performance Monitoring & Programs Division, shall observe the following schedules in the submission of the FOI reports, to wit: 1. The FROs shall submit the quarterly FOI Registry Report (Annex "A") , in hard and soft copies (excel format [.xls]), on or before the 5th day of the month following the close of the quarter to the Office of the Regional Director, Attention: FRO of the Revenue Region, for collation and summary of the reports. The FROs in the National Office shall submit their quarterly FOI Registry Report to their respective Assistant Commissioners (ACIRs). 2. The Regional FROs and ACIRs shall collate and submit, on or before the 10th day of the month following the close of the quarter, the consolidated FOI Registry Report (Annex "B") and FOI Summary Report (Annex "C") , also in hard and soft copies (excel format [.xls]), to the Planning and Management Service, Attention: Planning and Programming Division, BIR National Office, through [emailprotected] and [emailprotected] . 3. The Regional FROs and ACIRs shall furnish the Legal Service a copy of said reports through the Law and Legislative Division, Attention: [emailprotected] and [emailprotected] . 4. The Public Information and Education Division (PIED) is constituted as the eFOI Receiving Officer of the Bureau for FOI requests lodged online at the FOI portal ( www.foi.gov.ph ) and must make the necessary arrangements with the PCOO for the access to said FOI online requests. DETACa III. Submission of FOI Reports to PCOO The Planning and Programming Division shall collate all the FOI Reports and prepare the FOI Agency Information Inventory (Annex "D") , FOI Quarterly Registry (Annex "E") and FOI Quarterly Summary Report (Annex "F") , in accordance with FOI-MC No. 1 s. 2018 (Annex "G") , and submit the same to [emailprotected] based on the schedules set forth under the said Circulars. Non-compliance with the required reports shall be a ground for the imposition of appropriate administrative penalties under Section 26 of the FOI Manual. For your strict compliance. HEITAD (SGD.) CAESAR R. DULAY Commissioner of Internal Revenue ANNEX A FOI Registry (Quarterly Submission) ANNEX B FOI Registry (Quarterly Submission) ANNEX C FOI Summary Report ANNEX D Agency Information Inventory (Annual Submission) ANNEX E FOI Registry (Quarterly Submission) ANNEX F FOI Summary Report ANNEX G REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS OPERATIONS OFFICE Malacaang Manila, Philippines FOI-MC No. 01 s. 2018 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR SUBJECT : All Agencies, Departments, Bureaus, Offices, and Instrumentalities of the Executive Branch including Government-Owned and/or-Controlled Corporations (GOCCs), Government Financial Institutions (GFIs), Government Corporate Entities (GCEs), Non-Chartered GOCCs, and State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) SUBJECT : CALL FOR SUBMISSION: 2018 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (FOI) REPORTS DATE : March 7, 2018 WHEREAS , Executive Order (EO) No. 02, s. 2016 was issued by President Rodrigo R. Duterte on 23 July 2016 to operationalize the Constitutional mandate of the People's right to information; aDSIHc WHEREAS , Sections 8 and 16 of EO No. 2, s. 2016 instructed all government offices under the Executive Branch to prepare their respective People's Freedom of Information (FOI) Manual and Implementing Details (Agency FOI Manual) within 120 days upon the effectivity of said EO; WHEREAS , Section 15 of EO No. 02, s. 2016 states that failure to comply with the provisions of the EO may be a ground for administrative and disciplinary sanctions against any erring public officer or employee as provided under existing laws or regulations; WHEREAS , Memorandum Order (MO) No. 10, s. 2016 designated the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) as the lead agency in the implementation of EO No. 2, s. 2016, and all other FOI programs and initiatives including electronic FOI; WHEREAS , Sections 7, 10 and 16 of FOI Memorandum Circular No. 1, s. 2016 provides that all agencies are required to submit to the PCOO the Agency Information Inventory and the accomplished quarterly FOI Registry starting March 2017; WHEREAS , the FOI Inventory and FOI Registry templates have been reviewed and simplified for convenience in accomplishing the reports; NOW, THEREFORE , in consideration of the foregoing, strict observance to the following are hereby ordered: ATICcS Section 1. Agency Information Inventory. The Agency Information Inventory is a master list of all information recorded, stored, kept in or under the control and custody of a government office pursuant to law, executive order, and rules and regulations or in connection with the performance or transaction of official business by any government office. The revised and simplified Agency Information Inventory shall be submitted annually and shall contain the following data: Data Description Agency abbreviation Abbreviated name of the agency Agency name Official name of agency Title Title of the information Description Short description of what the information contains Online publication If information is available online (either YES or NO ) File format Available file types/formats of the information ( i.e. , CSV, XLS, SHP, KML, TXT, PDF, DOC, PNG, JPEG , etc. ) Location or URL URL of information if available online; otherwise, indicate physical location Disclosure Level of disclosure of information, whether: - Public : available for public consumption; - Exception : information is covered by the Exceptions list; - Internal : information is for agency consumption only and cannot be disclosed to the public; - With fee : information can be disclosed but with corresponding charges based on agency's mandate/policies/business model; and, - Limited : information can be disclosed to specific person/s and/or entity/ies upon verification of requesting party's identity. Original data owner Agency or office who processed the data Data maintainer Specific unit under the agency/office who is responsible for the data Date released Date when information was/is initially released (YYYY-MM-DD) Frequency of update If information is regularly published, whether daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually, or annually Section 2. FOI Quarterly Registry. The FOI Registry is a log of all FOI requests both in standard and electronic received by an agency for the specific quarter covered by the submission. The Registry, to be managed by the FOI Receiving Officers (FRO), will be the basis for measuring agency performance and compliance on the FOI program implementation. ETHIDa The revised and simplified FOI Registry shall be submitted quarterly and shall contain the following data: Data Description Year-Quarter Year and quarter of report coverage Tracking Number Internal FOI tracking number or the one indicated in the electronic FOI (eFOI) portal Request type Either eFOI (if through the eFOI portal) or standard (if paper-based) Date received Date the request was lodged by the requesting party (YYYY-MM-DD) Title of request Title of information being requested Extension If the agency requested for extension or additional 20 working days (either YES or NO ) Status Status of request whether: - Successful : information being requested has been provided through the eFOI portal or standard means; - Proactively disclosed : information has already been uploaded via the agency's website even before it was requested; - Partially successful : out of many requests, only a number has been provided by the agency; - Info under exceptions : request has been denied since it is covered by the Exceptions list; - Info not maintained : request has been denied since it is not handled, maintained, or stored by the agency - Invalid request : request is a question, not an actionable item, or is not a request for information - Closed : the requesting party failed to provide the information needed for clarification within 60 calendar days - Pending : request submitted by the requesting party but not yet acknowledged by the FOI Receiving Officer - Accepted : request acknowledged by the FOI Receiving Officer and forwarded to the FOI Decision Maker concerned - Awaiting clarification : request has been returned to the requesting party for clarification or for additional information - Processing : request has been received by the Decision Maker and is currently being processed Date finished Date the request was processed/finished by the agency (YYYY-MM-DD) ; if not yet processed/finished, indicate ONGOING Days lapsed Number of days lapsed facilitating the request Cost Fees paid by the requesting party to facilitate the request; if none, indicate FREE Appeal/s filed If the requesting party or any other citizen filed an appeal for the specific request (either YES or NO ) Remarks Additional details about the request Section 3. FOI Quarterly Summary. The FOI Registry shall be accompanied with the FOI Quarterly Summary which outlines the quantitative performance of the agency. The Summary shall include the total number of requests received by the agency according to the status. TIADCc Section 4. Format. All agencies are required to submit the accomplished FOI Reports strictly in Excel formats (.xls) based on the templates provided in this link: www.bit.ly/2018FOIReports Submissions not compliant to the file format and templates will not be considered. Section 5. Submission process. All agencies, including those already onboard the eFOI portal, are required to send soft copy submissions to [emailprotected] based on the following schedule: FOI Report Submission Date Agency Information Inventory September 30 FOI Quarterly Registry Q1 April 30 Q2 July 31 FOI Quarterly Summary Q3 October 30 Q4 January 31 All soft copy submissions shall be accompanied by an attached cover memo signed by at least an FOI Decision Maker and shall be addressed to: cSEDTC JOSE RUPERTO MARTIN M. ANDANAR Secretary and FOI Champion Presidential Communications Operations Office Units 103-104, BFB Building, 1575 JP Laurel Street, San Miguel, Malacaang, Manila Hard copy and incomplete submissions will not be considered. Section 6. Submission of Certifications. Certifications signed by the head of agency or the FOI Champion may be submitted only for the following reasons: a) No updates in the FOI Agency Information Inventory; and/or b) No FOI requests received for the period covered. Section 7. Contact. For questions and/or further clarifications, contact the Freedom of Information Project Management Office at (02) 588-0691 or through the email address indicated in Section 5. Section 8. Repeal. All orders, issuances, or parts thereof, which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Circular, are hereby repealed or modified accordingly. AIDSTE Section 9. Effectivity. This Circular shall take effect immediately. Section 10. Compliance. For your guidance and strict compliance. (SGD.) JOSE RUPERTO MARTIN M. ANDANAR Secretary and FOI Champion