Duque reiterates gov’t fight against red tape

“The head of office or agency shall be primarily responsible for the implementation of the Anti-Red Tape Act,” said Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairman Francisco T. Duque III upon the release of CSC Memorandum Circular No. 9, s. 2014 reiterating agency compliance with the landmark law aimed at curbing red tape and improving frontline service delivery.

“It is command responsibility,” added Chairman Duque, detailing that appropriate charges may be filed against the head of office or agency in case of failure to comply with the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) rules.

The memo enumerated other pertinent provisions of the ARTA and its implementing rules and regulations.

The Citizen’s Charter, an information billboard listing the step-by-step procedure of services available, the person responsible for each step, time needed to transact, documents required, and fees, should be posted at the main entrance or most conspicuous place in the office written either in English, Filipino, or in the local dialect.

The office or agency shall review the Citizen’s Charter whenever necessary but not less than once every two years.

Heads of offices or agencies which render frontline services shall adopt appropriate working schedules to ensure that all clients who are within their premises prior to the end of official working hours are attended to and served even during  lunch break and after regular working hours.

Officers or employees at the frontlines or those directly transacting with the clients shall wear an official identification card.

Offices shall establish a public assistance and complaints desk which should be manned during working hours.

Fixing and collusion with fixers are considered grave offenses with a corresponding penalty of dismissal and perpetual disqualification from public service. Penalties for fixers are imprisonment not exceeding six years, a fine of not more than PHP200,000, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.

The end goal of ARTA is excellent public service and customer satisfaction. The public must see improvements in their overall experience in transacting with government.

CSC already started the Report Card Survey for 2014, an annual nationwide client satisfaction survey to check agency compliance with ARTA. The following service offices shall be subjected to the survey: Bureau of Internal Revenue, Government Service Insurance System, Home Development Mutual Fund, Land Registration Authority, Land Transportation Office, Philippine Statistics Authority – National Statistics Office, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, Professional Regulation Commission, and Social Security System. q

CSC News Release
May 16, 2014

ARTA Watch: CSC Region 5 battling red tape

Nobody wants poor frontline service. Nobody wants inconvenience in transactions.  Nobody wants red tape.

The Civil Service Commission shares the same vision of a red tape-free country. It does interventions which aim to improve government agencies’ frontline services and ensure that they comply with Republic Act No. 9485, more commonly known as the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.

One of the interventions is the ARTA Watch or spot-checking. CSC personnel do surprise visits to government agencies and inspect whether or not an agency complies with the provisions of ARTA. Recently, teams from CSC regional and field offices in Region 5 dispersed to different cities to check some agencies.

Image source: http://www.homecaredirect.co.uk

CSC Camarines Sur Field Office conducted ARTA Watch at the offices of Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Land Registration Authority (LRA) in Iriga City, Philippine Statistics Authority (NSO), and Land Transportation Office in Naga City. BIR and LTO were found with minimal deficiencies, specifically on the display of the Citizen’s Charter and absence of directional signage, respectively. LRA does not comply with almost all of the ARTA requirements. NSO has no priority lanes for persons with disability (PWD).

Likewise, CSC Sorsogon Field Office spot-checked BIR and Social Security System (SSS) offices in Sorsogon City. Inspection result in BIR shows that it is almost fully compliant, while SSS still has to work on some ARTA requirements such as provision of special lane for PWDs and installation of ARTA campaign posters.

In Masbate City, LTO and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) were also spot-checked and both were found to be compliant.

ARTA Watch in other regions is simultaneously done all-year-round. The public is encouraged to report any ARTA-related violation to the Contact Center ng Bayan hotline 1-6565 or text 0908-881-6565, or file a complaint at www.contactcenterngbayan.gov.ph.

If you are a head of agency or part of the frontline service, check the detailed ARTA Watch results below and see if your agency has matching deficiencies and do something about it:

 

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Evidence-based anti-red tape survey results bring ‘good news’

Photo taken from the Internet – http://www.examiner.com.

“Good news,” says Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairman Francisco T. Duque III of the results of the 2013 Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) Report Card Survey (RCS) which was released last month.

Majority of the service offices surveyed passed, with 18 percent of the total 929 offices surveyed getting an Excellent rating and only 67 service offices or 7 percent failed.

Five hundred fifty seven or 60 percent rated Good; and the remaining 101 offices or 11 percent, Acceptable.

“We have seen a significant improvement in the passers,” said Chairman Duque.

Duque also believes that the significant improvement could mean that agencies now see that the provisions of the ARTA are for the improvement of their frontline services.

In addition to this, with the random spot checks, dubbed ARTA Watch, which the CSC conducts from time to time, as well as the annual Report Card Survey, agencies are on high alert as the CSC strictly implements the Anti-Red Tape Act.

The evaluation of frontline services of government offices is done through the RCS, a component of Republic Act No. 9485, also known as the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, to obtain evidence-based feedback on existence and effectiveness, as well as compliance with the agency Citizen’s Charter.

The Charter contains the types of frontline services a government agency offers with the step-by-step procedure, the person responsible for each step, time needed to transact, documents required, and fees. It is posted in conspicuous areas to make government transaction easier and transparent to the public.

“The ARTA RCS is not a perceptions survey. The survey is conducted face to face with clients who have just availed of any frontline service of the office being inspected,” explains Chairman Duque.

A service office fails the RCS when it incurs a final score that is below 70, or if it fails in one of the two core areas of ARTA.

Core 1 or compliance with ARTA provisions checks if the frontline office has a Citizen’s Charter visible to transacting clients and an anti-fixing campaign, if frontline staff wear identification cards, if there are no hidden transaction costs, if there is a manned Public Assistance and Complaints Desk, and if the frontline unit observes the No Noon Break policy.

Core 2 or overall client satisfaction checks the frontline service provider, service quality, physical setup, basic facilities, and respondent-client satisfaction.

Offices which obtained a score of 90 to 100 are rated Excellent; 80 to 89.99 Good; 70-79.99 Acceptable.

Service offices that failed the RCS will undergo the Service Delivery Excellence Program (SDEP), to be conducted by the Civil Service Commission, to determine and address problem areas in frontline service delivery.

“As the bureaucracy’s human resource institution, the CSC takes a developmental stance in implementing the ARTA. More than informing the public which offices passed or failed the annual ARTA Report Card Survey, the Commission provides various HR and organization development training programs that will aid government agencies to improve their service delivery,” said Chairman Duque.n

CSC News Release
March 12, 2014

862 out of 929 passed the 2013 ARTA Report Card Survey

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has noted improvements in frontline service delivery as more service offices passed the 2013 Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) Report Card Survey (RCS) compared with the 2012 result. The 75 percent passing rate in 2012 leaped to 92.79 percent in 2013, as 862 service offices out of 929 passed the ARTA RCS.

The CSC administers the nationwide survey as a means to fight red tape in the country. Aside from random spot checks known as the ARTA Watch, the CSC also uses this comprehensive tool in measuring a service office’s compliance with the provisions of the Anti-Red Tape Act.

Civil Service Commission Chairman Francisco T. Duque III conducts the ARTA Watch to personally check agency compliance to the provisions of the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.

In ARTA RCS, a team of CSC employees and members of civil society organizations go to government service offices and assess its performance against a checklist divided into two ARTA Core areas: (1) compliance with ARTA provisions — Citizen’s Charter, Anti-Fixing Campaign, ID, No Hidden Costs, Public Assistance and Complaints Desk (PACD), and No Noon Break Policy; and (2) overall client satisfaction – Frontline Service Provider, Service Quality, Physical Setup, Basic Facilities, and Respondent-client Satisfaction. Team members also talk to clients to obtain actual feedback on the quality of service they have received.

In 2013 survey, 168 offices got an Excellent mark (scored 90 to 100) , 36 were Outstanding (scored 90 to 100 but have a failing mark in any of the sub-areas), 557 Good (80-89.99), 101 were rated Acceptable (70-79.99), and 67 offices Failed (69.99 below).

The result of the Report Card Survey is used to help the agencies improve the quality of their service. Agencies which failed undergo the Service Delivery Excellence Program (SDEP).

Agencies with Excellent rating are awarded the Citizen Satisfaction Seal of Excellence. “This Seal of Excellence represents the recipient’s commitment to quality service,” CSC Chairman Francisco T. Duque III says.

The CSC will again conduct the RCS nationwide in 1,243 service offices this year. Chairman Duque encouraged the public to help improve the government frontline service delivery through Contact Center ng Bayan Hotline 1-6565 or by directly reporting to CSC Public Assistance and Complaints Desk.n

See full results here.

Full Results of the 2013 ARTA RCS

Published in the Philippine Star on February 26, 2014.

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Anti-red tape survey rates 50 gov’t offices as Excellent

ARTA Watch. Civil Service Commission Chairman Francisco T. Duque III checks the Citizen’s Charter posted at the lobby of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) during a surprise visit to the agency. CSC conducts “ARTA Watch” or spot checks of government agencies with frontline services to check their compliance with the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007.

Results of the frontline service checks made by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) through the Report Card Survey (RCS) in 2012 show that of the 599 government offices surveyed, 50 offices obtained an Excellent rating, the highest in the scale with scores from 90 to 100, while 150 offices failed or scored below 70. A total of 309 offices got a rating of Good, with numerical scores between 80 to 89.99, while 90 offices received an Acceptable rating with a score of 70-79.99.

As lead implementer of Republic Act No. 9485 or the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007, the CSC conducts a survey among government offices to gather feedback on the effectiveness of and compliance with the anti-red tape measures of government agencies. The RCS checks on the agency’s compliance with ARTA provisions, physical working condition, frontline service provider, service quality, and overall customer satisfaction.

Compliance with ARTA provisions, which is the area where most agencies failed, include posting of Citizen’s Charter in conspicuous areas, posting of anti-fixer signs, a manned public assistance desk, observance of no noon break policy, no hidden fees in frontline transactions, and wearing of IDs of frontline personnel.

“We are serious in doing our job as required by law. The CSC does the rounds in all agencies and offices. This means that all branches, field offices, and/or satellite offices of one agency are subjected to the RCS,” said CSC Chairman Francisco T. Duque III.

Of the 50 offices that rated Excellent, 33 are branches or service offices of national government agencies, namely, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Health, Department of Trade and Industry, Land Registration Authority, and Land Transportation Office, while 17 offices are branches or service offices of government-owned and controlled corporations, namely, Home Development Mutual Fund, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and Social Security System.

Rule V of the implementing rules and regulations of RA No. 9485 states that the heads of offices and agencies are the ones primarily responsible for the implementation of the Anti-Red Tape Act.

Chairman Duque disclosed that the CSC continues to conduct the RCS. As of March 2013, the Commission has conducted 209 surveys.

Full list of the 2012 ARTA RCS results are posted in the CSC website http://www.csc.gov.ph. q

CSC News Release
April 18, 2013

2012 ARTA RCS Results: