House OK’s rightsizing bill on 3rd and final reading

THE HOUSE of Representatives (HoR) on Wednesday, July 26, passed on third and final reading House Bill No. 5707 on “Rightsizing the National Government Act,” a priority measure marked by President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

Two days after Mr. Duterte urged the lawmakers in his State of the Nation Address to pass the rightsizing bill on the government bureaucracy “the soonest,” the HoR approved HB No. 5707, which aims to cut bureaucracy by merging or abolishing agencies with redundant operating functions, to improve efficiency in delivering government service.

The principal author of the bill, Davao City Representative Karlo Alexei Nograles, said the bill will whip up a “lean and mean bureaucracy.”

The bill empowers the government to “minimize, if not eliminate, redundancies, overlaps and duplication in its operations and simplify its rules and regulations, systems and processes.” It authorizes the President to abolish government positions that are “considered to be nonperforming and unnecessary.”

It covers the executive branch, including departments, bureaus, offices, commissions, boards, councils, and all other entities attached to or falling under their administrative supervisions, and government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) not covered by Republic Act No. 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011.

An optional adoption, meanwhile, may be done by the legislature, judiciary, constitutional commissions, the Office of the Ombudsman, and local government units.

Under the same bill, a Committee on Rightsizing the Executive Branch will be created to oversee the implementation of the Act. The Committee shall be composed of the Executive secretary as the chairperson, and the secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as co- chairperson and with the secretary of Socioeconomic Planning, chairperson of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and the head of the Presidential Management Staff as members.

In a statement released yesterday, Mr. Nograles clarified that the bill “is not firing anyone.”

“It is not a forced retirement or separation scheme. Those government workers who will be affected by rightsizing have the option to avail ( themselves) of the package or they can opt to stay in government service. If they opt to stay in government office they will be placed in a training pool for training and retooling and eventual deployment to another government office,” Mr. Nograles said in a statement.

Under the bill, those who may be affected may avail themselves of retirement benefits and separation incentives.

Budget Secretary Benjamin I. Diokno had earlier said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) estimates up to 255,295 general civil servants, or 16% of the 1.6 million total government positions, would be affected by the proposed Rightsizing the National Government Act of 2017.

A counterpart bill, Senate Bill No. 1162, has been introduced by Senator Loren B. Legarda.