Bill seeking reorganization of non-performing state agencies pushed in Senate

April 2, 2017

The Senate committees on civil service, government reorganization and professional regulation, and finance have submitted the committee report for the bill seeking to reorganize and abolish non-performing state agencies as part of the Duterte administration’s rightsizing program.

Senate Bill No. 1395, “An Act Rightsizing the National Government to Improve Public Service Delivery and for other purposes” which was prepared jointly by the two Senate panels — were authored by Senators Loren Legarda, Vicente Sotto III, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Gregorio Honasan II and Antonio Trillanes IV.

Legarda, head of the Senate finance panel, said the bills have been “considered, studied and deliberated upon and took into consideration the inputs from different government agencies, resource persons and other stakeholders concerned.”

The bill’s primary focus is to abolish agencies whose functions are already redundant or no longer relevant or necessary or could be better undertaken by another entity.

“In his fiscal year 2017 budget message, President Rodrigo Duterte himself expressed concern over the size of our bureaucracy. Specifically, he noted that although the expansion of the bureaucracy is a response to the growing demand of public services, there is still fat in government that we must trim,” Legarda said in her sponsorship speech of the bill which she delivered before the Senate went on Holy Week break.

Legarda noted that from 176 agencies in 2000, the number of agencies in the national government bloated to 186.

She said the number of government agencies “without doubt has a significant impact on our budget.”

“It is time we address the inefficiencies brought about by the ‘fat in government’ by rationalizing and rightsizing the functions and organizational structure of the different agencies in the Executive Branch,” she stressed.

The bill is now on second reading and filed as Senate Committee Report No. 56.

Manila Bulletin