Anti-Red Tape Authority
Definition
The Anti–Red Tape Authority (ARTA) is a Philippine government agency created under Republic Act No. 11032 (2018), which amended the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007. Attached to the Office of the President, it leads the national ease-of-doing-business program and enforces citizens’ charter and processing-deadline rules across government offices.
Identities (Wikipedia/Wikidata/DBpedia)
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti%E2%80%93Red_Tape_Authority
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q31810141
- DBpedia: N/A
Also Known As
ARTA.
Examples and Analogies
Where a queue marshal keeps lines moving, ARTA keeps bureaucratic queues moving: its rules set 3 working days for simple transactions, 7 for complex ones, and 20 for highly technical applications, with violations referable to the Ombudsman.
Usage Scenarios
Citizens report offices lacking posted citizens’ charters or missing deadlines through ARTA hotlines and reports; businesses use its streamlined permitting programs, and agencies undergo compliance monitoring and “Report Card” surveys.
Strategies
ARTA uses whole-of-government streamlining, digitization pushes, and name-and-shame enforcement; it convenes inter-agency task forces to collapse multi-step permits into one-stop business one-stop shops.
Security and Safety Measures
The law punishes fixers and officials who facilitate cutting corners; ARTA itself refers erring personnel to the Ombudsman and safeguards whistleblowers who report red-tape complaints.
Historical Context
RA 9485 (2007) first criminalized red tape; a decade later RA 11032 strengthened it with an enforcement authority. ARTA began operations in 2019 and expanded into ease-of-doing-business and anti-corruption streamlining under succeeding administrations.
Challenges and Controversies
Critics note uneven enforcement, dependence on cooperation of larger agencies, and debates over its jurisdiction clashes with other bodies. Business groups periodically press for faster digitization than ARTA’s pace delivers.