AN important decision of the Arroyo administration which should have elicited wide approval because of its consistency with the desired quality of public service, seemed to have been dismissed generally with devious inattention.
Aside from the casual assent that greeted its announcement, leaders of business for whom it was mostly meant, appeared to have nothing more to say about the government initiative.
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I am referring to the sweeping changes in the bureaucratic processes that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the other day which are expected to restructure government offices into lean, economical, and efficient instruments of national growth and development.
The proposed changes, contained in Executive Order 428 are devised "to simplify rules and regulations and reduce reportorial requirements to facilitate doing business and encourage more investments in the country."
The President directed department heads and bureau and agency officials under the Executive Branch as well as government-owned and controlled corporations to cut red tape, avoid excessive complexity in government transactions, and enjoined them to practice transparency at all times.
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Red tape and the lack of transparency in public affairs have always been blamed for the commission of graft and corruption which has become rampant administration after administration.
In her speech at the National Conference of Employers on Wednesday at the Manila Hotel, President Arroyo referred to her executive order as means of facilitating business negotiations with the government in order to create an environment conducive to commerce and industry and to speed up the growth of entrepreneurship in the country.
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I recall these were practically the same goals years back when the defunct Reorganization Commission was created under then Executive Secretary Rafael Salas as chairman: To achieve effective, economical, and responsive public affairs conducive to national development.
In-depth studies were conducted by the Commission under then UP"s Dr. Abelardo Samonte as Executive Director, but nothing happened to it after Secretary Salas left for the United Nations and was succeeded by Secretary Ernesto Maceda and then by Secretary Alejandro Melchor who later caused the abolition of the Executive Secretary’s Office in Malacanang.
Obviously, the idea survives as, in fact, attempts to streamline the bureaucracy have been the preoccupation of every administration, although without much success.
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In her executive order, President Arroyo expanded the range of her vision by focusing on the elimination of poverty as the overriding goal of her new policy, and placing on private business as engine of development the onus of achieving it.
By making it more convenient for business to deal with government and leveling the playing field, business has to reciprocate by providing more jobs and thus help ease the burden of the country’s deserving poor.
The bargain is fair enough, but the bureaucracy must first show its compliance or we are back to square one.
