Ease of Doing Biz law’s IRR signed
Credit to Author: ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES| Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2019 16:21:58 +0000
THREE government agencies signed on Wednesday the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and Efficient Government Services Delivery Act of 2018, which is expected to help considerable improve the country’s business climate.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairman Alicia dela Rosa-Bala and Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Director Jeremiah Belgica signed the IRR, which the latter said would be published today and take effect 15 days afterward.
“The IRR was meant to supply all of the details for the full implementation of the [EoDB]. This will also include the procedure on how the complaints should be made,” Belgica explained.
“We cannot do that before without the IRR. The complaining process was not included in the law,” he added.
Signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on May 28, 2018, RA 11032 standardizes the processing time for applications and transactions with the government: three working days for simple transactions, seven for complex ones and 20 for those requiring highly technical assessment.
The law also imposes hefty penalties on violators: a six-month suspension on the first offense; and a maximum of six years in prison, a fine of between P500,000 and P2 billion, and termination of retirement benefits on the second.
The law amended RA 9485, or the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007.
Applicants may file complaints through text messaging and even their social media accounts, according to Belgica.
“One salient point that we have included is the recommendation for us to preventively suspend erring government employees. [The] law that created the ARTA did not give us the power to preventively suspend. What we could only do is file cases or assist citizens,” he said.
“In partnership with other government bodies, we are now also deputized to investigate and also recommend a preventive suspension, but subject to the discretion of the Commission or Ombudsman,” he added.
Belgica said another critical point listed in the IRR is the all-inclusive application of the law.
“It is pretty much very comprehensive, except for those constitutional bodies [that] are exercising quas judicial functions. When it comes to constitutional commissions, they are not covered as to their quasi judicial or decision in cases,” he added.
“The discussions when it comes to quasijudicial agencies, they should be bounded within their own internal rules. We would surmise that if you have internal rules, then follow that.”
International treaties are also exempted in the coverage of the EoDB, according to ARTA Deputy Director General Ernesto Perez.
“These are [an] active part of the exemptions. We respect international treaties [and] agreements, and we’ve been saying that [the EoDB] is a general law, so that if it is in conflict with a special law, then the special law will take effect,” Perez said.
He also said an inventory of the citizens charter would also be conducted by the ARTA.
“The specific guidelines on [the] citizens charter will be taken up subsequently through a guideline that will be notified to all government agencies and the private sector,” he said.
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