‘Only’ 19 LGUs declared compliant with business one-stop shop rules

THE Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) said only 19 local government units (LGUs) out of 1,637 are fully compliant with the electronic business one-stop shop (eBOSS) requirement of the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) law.

“Out of 1,637 LGUs, 630 have reported that they are now (implementing the law). But validation by the ARTA Compliance Monitoring and Evaluation Office showed that only 19 LGUs are fully compliant, which means that they are fully automated, while 611 LGUs are only partially automated,” ARTA Secretary Ernesto Perez said in an interview with government network PTV.

“We are continuously doing our compliance audit together with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT),” he added.

eBOSS is one of the flagship programs of ARTA. It aims to streamline procedures for applications and issuance of local business licenses and permits via a single digital portal accessible on demand.

Mr. Perez said the President has tasked ARTA and other government agencies to implement a nationwide rollout of the eBOSS platform to help non-compliant LGUs.

“President Marcos himself ordered us together with the Presidential Management Staff, DILG and DICT to hold a nationwide rollout tentatively in the last week of January,” he said.

Mr. Perez said that ARTA will be helping the LGUs by donating hardware and providing technical assistance.

“This is so our LGUs will not have any reason to not comply with the requirements,” he added.

Aside from eBOSS, ARTA also wants to hasten the issuance of permits and licenses for telecommunications towers.

“Through this, more than 36,000 permits have been issued just for one year of implementation,” Mr. Perez said.

ARTA, through its Compliance Monitoring and Evaluation Office, is also implementing Report Card Surveys which evaluate the compliance of covered agencies and LGUs with the requirements of the EoDB law.

“Based on our report, 94.72% of the covered agencies have submitted their updated citizen’s charter,” he said. — Justine Irish D. Tabile