The House Committee on Government Reorganization on Tuesday approved the crafting of a substitute bill for all 15 proposals to rightsize the bureaucracy to improve public service delivery.
The consolidation and substitution of the bills were done during the initial deliberation on proposals to rightsize the national government.
The panel tasked its committee secretariat to draft the substitute bill to House Bills 12, 2423, 2787, 2885, 3096, 3227, 3385, 3473, 3529, 3539, 4015, 4086, 4120, 4411 & 4816, authored by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Reps. Richard Gomez, DPA, Patrick Michael Vargas, Margarita Ignacia Nograles, Teodorico Haresco Jr., Michael Romero, Ph.D., Keith Micah ‘Atty. Mike’ Tan, Jonathan Keith Flores, Paolo Duterte, Edvic Yap, Luis Raymund ‘LRay’ Villafuerte Jr., Gus Tambunting, Stella Luz Quimbo, Virgilio Lacson, and Joseph Gilbert Violago, respectively.
Flores said that in a nutshell, the primordial purpose of the bills to rightsize the government bureaucracy is to improve public service delivery by minimizing duplication, redundancy or overlapping in functions.
“We all know that rightsizing the bureaucracy is without complications. It is not an easy task to overhaul a bloated bureaucracy considering the vastness and complexity of government offices. Notwithstanding the thousands of government employees to be affected, as well as the difficulty of designating an organizational structure that shall function effectively and realize that it is the intent of the measures in the context of good governance, improve public service delivery, and fiscal prudence,” Flores said.
Rep. Jude Acidre (Party-list, Tingog), co-author of HB 12 along with Speaker Romualdez and fellow Tingog Party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, said that the rightisizing proposal would grant the President the authority to rightsize the operations of the executive branch and the creation of a committee for such purpose.
“In support of the agenda of the present administration to fast track the delivery of essential services and improve efficiency of services it is high time that we pass this priority legislative measure,” Acidre said.