Republic Act No. 9485 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations

September 16, 2008

CSC MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR NO. 12-08

 

Republic Act No. 9485, otherwise known as "An Act to Improve Efficiency in the Delivery of Government Service to the Public by Reducing Bureaucratic Red Tape, Preventing Graft and Corruption, and Providing Penalties Thereof" or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, was signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on June 2, 2007.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, the Civil Service Commission has promulgated the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the said Act through CSC Resolution No. 081471 dated July 24, 2008. The IRR was published in the Philippine Star on August 21, 2008 and took effect on September 5, 2008. Attached is the IRR (Annex A).

Under the said law, each office or agency is tasked to perform the following within one (1) year from effectivity of the IRR, in cooperation with the CSC, the Development Academy of the Philippines, and agency clientele:

1. Identify its frontline services;

2. Undertake reengineering of transactions. This includes limiting the number of signatories to a maximum of five (5) signatures, and providing for the period within which applications or requests are acted upon which shall not be longer than five (5) working days for simple transactions and ten (10) working days for complex transactions; and TaCDAH

3. Set up service standards to be known as the Citizen's Charter, including forming a task force to prepare said Charter, to be presented on a billboard or other prominent announcement at the office handling the processes and services explained therein.

Crucial to the crafting of the agency Citizen's Charter is the identification of the agency's frontline services. As defined under the law, "frontline service" refers to "the process or transaction between clients and government offices or agencies involving applications for any privilege, right, permit, reward, license, concession, or for any modification, renewal or extension of the enumerated applications and/or requests which are acted upon in the ordinary course of business of the office or agency concerned".

Frontline services include those services (1) with regular face-to-face interaction with the public; (2) which are highly demanded or highly needed; (3) which receive the most number of complaints; or (4) which have immediate impact to the public/community.

Pursuant to Section 2 (b) of Rule II, "Citizen's Charter" refers to an official document, a service standard, or a pledge, that communicates, in simple terms, information on the services provided by the government to its citizens. It describes the step-by-step procedure for availing a particular service, and the guaranteed performance level that clients may expect for that service.

Annex B shows an excerpt from the Citizen's Charter of a local government unit pertaining to Granting of New, and Renewal of Existing, Business Permits.

An electronic copy of the IRR is available at www.csc.gov.ph.

Please monitor the CSC website for updates on the Anti-Red Tape Act. TCIDSa

(SGD.) RICARDO L. SALUDOChairman

ATTACHMENT

CSC Resolution No. 081471