THE Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) wants government workers to return to regular work setup amid the pandemic as this is seen to prevent the decline in quality of government services.
In a statement on Monday, the anti-red tape agency said it was proposing the implementation of 100-percent operational capacity for frontline government services, as well as back end services supporting segments. This shall be applied for all work days of the week.
But Arta said this should not include employees exempted by the Civil Service Commission, including minors, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, persons with disabilities, pregnant and nursing mothers. The agency said they may be assigned to a unit not requiring full operational capacity.
For other units, they may operate at 50-percent capacity, Arta suggested, noting this may be adjusted according to the developments on the health crisis front.
Arta said the proposal is in line with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ omnibus guidelines on the implementation of community quarantine. It mandates government agencies to be fully operational with a skeleton workforce on-site and the rest under alternative work arrangements.
Arta Director General Jeremiah Belgica said the proposal stemmed from “multiple complaints against government workers allegedly using alternative working arrangements as an excuse to be inefficient in their work.”
During surprise inspections, Arta also found out that some government agencies were implementing unwarranted cut-off schemes and dealing with backlogs of pending applications. Both are in violation of the Ease of Doing Business law, it noted.
The anti-red tape department also noted that some agencies were not able to provide employees the basic support in implementing alternative work arrangements amid budget constraints.
“With no proper working tools, internet allowance, and shuttle services, the employees’ productivity were affected,” Arta said.
In addition, it called on the agencies to accelerate the vaccination rollout for the government employees.
Recently, Arta announced its intent to establish a small working group aimed at improving the data-matching system among government agencies.
The planned committee will be composed of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the National Privacy Commission and the Department of Information and Communications Technology. Belgica explained this is in line with the streamlining initiative of the government in order to facilitate quicker transactions by data sharing among government agencies.
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