The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), in a memorandum circular (MC), directed all heads of government agencies including state universities, local government units, government-owned or -controlled corporations, and other government instrumentalities in the Philippines and abroad providing services covering business and nonbusiness related transactions to designate a Committee on Anti-Red Tape (CART).
MC No. 2020-07 series of 2020 was approved and issued by ARTA Director General Jeremiah B. Belgica on September 30, 2020.
Under the MC, the designated committee shall be tasked to ensure that the agency will comply with the provisions of Republic Act 11032, its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), and with the subsequent issuances by ARTA. Its creation is mandated under Section 1 of the law’s IRR which states that each agency shall designate a unit to perform streamlining and reengineering of systems and procedures.
Among others, the CART shall conduct compliance cost analysis, time and motion studies, evaluation and improvement of all the agency’s systems and procedures in order to reduce bureaucratic red tape and processing time.
The CART will also be responsible for periodically reviewing the agency’s Citizen’s Charter and ensuring that the agency strictly complies with the 3-7-20 prescribed processing time for transactions and the zero contact policy.
Furthermore, the CART shall establish and manage a public assistance complaints desk to effectively receive complaints, comments, and suggestions, and monitor client satisfaction via various feedback mechanisms. It must ensure that all complaints forwarded by the Presidential Complaints center Civil Service Commission’s Contact Center ng Bayan, and ARTA’s Complaints and Action Center are acknowledged, responded to and/or acted upon within the designated period.
The CART shall be “an inter-office task force that will require no separate budget or creation of new plantilla positions to facilitate its creation by the agency head”, the memorandum circular cited.
The CART will be composed of a chairperson, a vice chairperson, and at least five other members. The head of the agency or any official he/she designates (who must at least be the third highest ranking official in the agency) shall serve as the committee’s Chairperson.
The agencies may also designate a sub-CART in their respective regional/field offices, attached agencies or bureaus.
Agencies’ existing units designated to ensure their compliance with the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 as amended by the Ease of Doing Business Law should be reorganized as the CART, whereas LGUs with Regulatory Reform Teams created under DILGARTA Joint Memorandum Circular 2019-01 shall be recognized as the CART’s equivalent and as such perform its functions.