BIZ BUZZ: Red flag for ARTA
The government’s anti-red tape body is set to lose as much as half of its contractual employees in the coming months, leaving it with substantially less manpower to fulfill its mandate of curbing unnecessary delays in the public sector.
An insider at the Anti-red Tape Authority (ARTA) told Biz Buzz that the layoffs are expected to happen in May. This was purportedly due to the lower budget that they received this year.
“We cannot sustain the current number of (contract of service) employees,” said the insider.
The insider added that the Commission on Audit (COA) has also flagged them for a supposedly low budget utilization rate of 85 percent, below the “acceptable” 90s level.
This, the insider said, supposedly affected the assessment of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on how much funding ARTA should get this year.
Based on budget documents posted on the DBM’s website, ARTA’s funding for fiscal year 2025 was reduced by 21.7 percent to P383.63 million from the P490 million last year.
