reforming a bpl system
Department heads of the Cagayan de Oro City government office, together with representatives from the business community, translated lessons from their March 4-5 2010 benchmarking activity in the cities of Lapu-lapu and Cebu into strategies for the improvement of the existing business processing and licensing system (BPLS) in the city.
As part of the streamlining project of Cagayan de Oro, the post-benchmarking workshop was held at the Conference Room of the Mayor’s Office last March 8 2010 where participants evaluated the two areas for improvement in the BPLS – the process and technology of the system, and the inspection component.
Among the major strategies identified were the institutionalization of the streamlined BPLS process, the establishment of a year-long Business One-Stop-Shop, the development of the Citizen’s Charter of the city, the creation of its MIS department, the amendment of present ordinances on validity periods of permits, and the establishment of a monitoring scheme through a Joint Inspection Team composed of the regulatory agencies like the city building, fire and health offices.
These strategies were ascertained after the team, under the leadership of the project Management Committee Chair and Promote CdO Foundation President Ruben Vegafria, evaluated the existing BPLS practices of Cagayan de Oro against those observed in the cities of Lapu-lapu and Cebu during the benchmarking activity. Also using the BPLS National Standard as point of reference, the group identified gaps, the areas for reforms and the proposed strategies for these reforms.
The strategy identification is marked as one of the milestones in the BPLS project that the local government unit (LGU) is undertaking and it will soon be followed by the setting up of an action plan that will ultimately recognize and implement the official streamlined BPLS process in the city.
The BPLS enhancement project is executed by a three-party group composed of the LGU of Cagayan de Oro, Department of Trade and Industry Misamis Oriental Office, and the Promote CDO Foundation. This project, which officially started last February 5 2010, is aimed to simplify business licensing and encourage the entry of business in the city. As Technical Assistance Package (TAP) 1.2 of the Local Implementation of National Competitiveness for Economic Growth (LINC-EG) Project, it is implemented with the support of USAID.
