DILG declares 52 Region 9 LGUs as BPLS compliant

ZAMBOANGA CITY, May 15 (PNA) -- Fifty-two of the 72 local government units (LGUs) in the Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9) had been declared compliant to the business permits and licensing system (BPLS) streamlining project initiated by the national government in 2010.

This was contained in the latest monitoring and evaluation report from the regional office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), a copy of which was furnished to the Region 9 office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The DILG and DTI had been jointly tasked to assist the LGUs in re-engineering their old and complicated business licensing systems.

The goal is to make the BPLS of all the 72 LGUs in Region 9 compliant to the up-scaled national streamlining standards before 2016, .

DTI-9’s Institutional Development Division head Grace Aduca said the BPLS streamlining program basically refers to the simplification of the current business permitting systems of LGUs to make them more efficient, transparent, and investor-friendly.

“Streamlining, simplifying or re-engineering, however you call it, is just the first step. But it is by far the most important component of the BPLS reforms that DTI and DILG advocate to our LGUs,” Aduca said.p>She said streamlining the BPLS would improve competitiveness both at the local and national levels by reducing the cost of doing business as well as by minimizing the avenues for graft.

The said program enjoins all LGUs to follow service standards in processing business permits applications through the adoption and use of a unified form; and through the reduction of number of steps, processing time, and number of signatories in securing said permits from the LGUs.

“As soon as they (the LGUs) have finished streamlining, we would shepherd them through the second phase which is the automation of their system through the use of computers and e-BPLS softwares to make it even more efficient,” Aduca said.

She added that several LGUs in the region have already availed of DTI’s assistance in procuring the needed computer hardwares for automation through the grassroots participatory budgeting (GPB) system. (PNA)
CMR/TPGJR/JSD