| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The City Government of Legazpi, with its goal to be a “business/investor friendly LGU,” introduced and improved its, “Business One-Stop Shop,” process.A Simplification Team was organized by the City Mayor, identifying each one's roles and responsibilities. Undertakings were: (1) series of brainstorming among stakeholders with the Chief Executive to garner support and cooperation and create a positive mindset and attitude within the workforce; (2) trainings on customer relations and IT literacy; and (3) launch of an aggressive campaign through media and local communications service-providers.
An initial step to be undertaken by the client was around seven procedures. By 2010, a streamlining team was tasked to review and simplify front line service procedure; the initiative was known as, Business Permits and Licensing System Reforms. The original seven (7) steps were reduced to five (5)steps, eventually with the Regulatory-Simplification initiative, five (5) steps was again reduced to only three (3) steps.
Activities of the reform program were: (1) coordination with DILG,DTI, business sector (through the local chamber of commerce and industry), media, frontline service providers on the reform system; (2) identification of key issues and the resources needed; (3) development of clear strategy; (4) assignment of roles and responsibilities to establish accountability mechanisms; (5) time and budgetary framework; (6) feedback mechanism/system evaluation and; (6) reward/commendation to the top ten early registrants.
The City Government's citizen's charter is a commitment and pledge of the concerned Office to be more responsive to the demands of the public and become more accountable. A work-flow chart is posted on conspicuous areas where the public is informed on the processes, the officer-in-charge, the expected time of process/step completion and even the fees to be paid.
Aiming to showcase a best practice model in Land Administration & Management reforms, the City Government has a working model of ETRACS and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications that have been used in planning, and hazard and risk assessments. Business permits, real property tax assessment and tax collection modules interconnect to land records management to enhance the standards of service delivery, increase land and property-based revenues and provide a platform for information sharing across concerned departments and units of the City Government.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Stakeholders involved in the implementation were the national and local government agencies, the Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG), the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), Bureau of Fire, the City Government departments/offices such as, Business Permit and Licensing Division/City Mayor's Office, City Planning and Development Office, City Engineer's Office, City Assessor's Office, City Treasurer's Office and City Health Office, Legazpi Tourism Stakeholders Development Council, Inc., the business sector, media and its frontline service providers.The private sector took the reins and steered the City toward a sustainable and profitable future.
Government has a role to play but business will be the driver.The effort to build a lasting stability and equitable development for Legazpi City requires daily commitment of everyone concerned. Businessmen must be conscientious in their affairs and diligent in their payment of taxes, policymakers to be sensitive to what is truly needed and executives must be efficient in their daily governance, workers must be industrious and the ordinary citizens must be law-abiding in complying with even the most simple regulations.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Technical resources were provided by the Business Permit & Licensing Division/City Mayor's Office, financial and human resources came from the City Government in the form of salaries and wages, mobility costs, documentation cost and hiring of additional Job-Order employees.
The City Government of Legazpi submitted an application to the Innovation Support Fund (ISF) for small grant in 2007, to enhance its land records and management system. The grant and its counterpart funding was used to support the installation of the Tax Revenue Assessment and Collection System (TRACS) and establish connectivity between the local tax assessment and collection offices. After achieving the outputs under the small grant phase, the City Government was upscaled to the Programattic Grant phase amounting to P 4M, of which more than 25% is City's counterpart. Thus the City Government was able to establish the Enhanced Tax Revenue Assessment and Collection System (ETRACS).
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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Concrete outputs that contributed to the success of the initiative were: (1) efficiency of administrative processes brought about by the simplification procedure, providing for fast processing of business permits and facilitating revenue collection; (2) provision of consistent assessment that leads to accurate computation of business tax and related fees/charges; (3)accurate report and data bank generation of all business establishmentsand transactions. Data can be easily generated which is valuable in management decision-making, projection of revenues, monitoring of financial resources, monitoring delinquent taxpayers and even determining interest and surcharges; (4) eliminating the need to visit multiple offices tominimize red-tape, reduce administrative cost, save time and combatcorruption; and (5) gain of thrust and support among clients and the civil servants and improved public confidence in the City Government. One of the most evident positive results of the reform system was the alliance formed among the stakeholders to support the adaptation of the practice. There were exchange of knowledge, know-how, expertise and experience among frontline service providers with similar roles and responsibilities, fronting the same issues and challenges.
Most importantly, competence, integrity, transparency and accountability remain to be the hallmarks of good governance and the key to the successful implementation of the reform package.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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After implementation of the initiative, BPLO periodically conducts needs assessment and feedback mechanism from the business sector. Suggestions and recommendations are taken into consideration and become a basis for further improving and enhancing the reform system.
The City Government's citizen's charter is a commitment and pledge of the concerned City Offices to be more responsive to the demands of the public. A work-flow chart is posted on conspicuous area where the public is informed on the process, the officer-in-charge, the expected time and even the fees to be paid. All offices and employees concerned are held accountable and non-compliance with the provisions of the citizen's charter is a ground for suspension and even dismissal.
The City is adopting the Strategic Performance Management System (SPMS), a monitoring compliant tool based on the Performance Governance System, introduced by the Institute Solidarity in Asia. This is a transformation from a mere transactional method to strategic breakthrough initiatives. It is an effective performance management system that will keep track of the progress of programs and projects, with coaching as direct intervention thus identifying bottlenecks and adopting strategies to ensure success in achieving the City Government's mandate, mission, goals and objectives.
The SPMS also identifies areas for improvement within the organization and among individual employees, which ultimately strengthens a culture of performance and accountability. This is also a team approach to performance management whereby it encourages cooperation within the workplace since every individual performance matters and the achievements of the organization are results of combined efforts of all offices and employees. At the end of the rating period, employees with very satisfactory and excellent performance ratingswill be rewarded with performance-based bonus.
Also, the existing digital data, through ETRACS, once updated, validated and geo-referenced can be transformed into tax maps that will show delinquencies in business tax, realty tax payments and/or discover new taxable real property units.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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As in most cases, there is always resistance to change. Skepticism was evident within the organization, but was overcome by the sustained prodding of the local chief executive and most importantly the community support, specifically the business sector as the project unfolds.From a transactional-passive atmosphere, the frontline teams had to be creative and exhibit quality service despite limited resources and operational capacities.
Another problem encountered was the lack of technical expertise leading to unsystematic implementation. Common concern of the team was the need to harness information and technology competencies of all service providers, which was slowly addressed by its computerization program.
The City Government of Legazpi continues to initiate a constructive dialogue with businessmenand addressvital issues that affect the climate for economic growth, investment and employment. The City Mayor strongly believes that the local business community can very well serve as the partner of his administration in steering the wheel for the City to follow the path towards an economically progressive future.
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