PSA-7 to cut transaction time

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Statistics Authority is eyeing to reduce the processing time of every transaction to two hours.

PSA-7 director Ronaldo Taghap said that reducing the processing time for birth, marriage and death certificates is part of the yearly strategy adopted by the agency.

"Over the years, we have improved the processing and the turnaround time that each transaction takes. This year, our goal is for every person to apply may get their documents in two hours," he said, referring only on documentations involving birth, marriage and death.

He recalled that PSA is bound under an existing contract since 2000 for a project, through public-private partnership, particularly for the servi-ces in providing certifications for birth, marriage and death.

He shared that under the agreement, the agency also has to improve its computer system and has to upgrade each year its software through tapping modern technologies.

When the project was initiated in 2000, he recalled that birth, marriage and death certificates were used to be requested in Manila and would take at most one month for applicants to receive the certificates.

He said that processing time was then reduced to three to five days. Delayed transactions could be attributed to other factors that are beyond their control, like slow internet connections.

"Since we are an outlet which is connected to our central facility, there are times that we meet problems like those in downloading or when the internet connection is also slow, there are problems with our service providers especially with telecommunication firms," he said.

At present, he said processing of documents is mostly completed in one day.

"Most of the time, it will take them the whole day to take the document. If you come in the morning, you can get your documents in the afternoon. That is our promise until now but the goal is to reduce transactions for within two hours," he said.

The Civil Service Commission-7 earlier called on government entities, particularly those that render frontline services, to revisit the Citizen's Charter to further streamline the processing time and the number of requirements for government transactions.

President Rodrigo Duterte, during his inaugural address, directed government heads to lessen the requirements asked from the transacting public and to reduce the processing time if possible for all applications. (FREEMAN)