The National Tobacco Administration will start the distribution of the revised NTA Citizen’s Charter Handbook to its various stakeholders, as part of information dissemination on the enhanced and more simplified process of frontline services of the agency.
The handbook (2021 edition) was officially launched on February 10 with the presentation of copies to Administrator/CEO Robert Victor G. Seares Jr., Deputy Administrator for Support Services Benedicto M. Savellano and acting Deputy Administrator for Operations Roberto R. Bonoan.
Dinah E. Pichay, Internal Audit Service Manager and Focal Person on the Citizen’s Charter, said that the revised charter has complied with the Section 6 of the Republic Act No. 11032, otherwise known as the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018.
The said provision requires government agencies to set up their updated Citizen’s Charter in billboards, websites, or in the form of published materials detailing a comprehensive and uniform checklist of requirements for each type of application or request, the procedure to obtain a particular service, the maximum time to conclude the process, among other requirements.
In his message, Administrator Seares said that the revised NTA Citizen’s Charter, an open public document, will properly inform all our industry stakeholders about our brand of quality government service worthy of public trust and confidence as embodied in the NTA Quality Policy.
“This is a testament of the Agency’s wholehearted response to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s challenge to revolutionize the delivery of government services through increased operational efficiency and responsive, client-centric management of programs, projects, and activities,” he said.
According to Pichay, there had been amendments on the past 8 years after the release of the 2013 edition.
“Now the charter is formally updated to agree to the national government effort to streamline government processes, eliminate corrupt practices, and cut red tape in the bureaucracy,” Pichay said.
Pichay and her staff at the IAS consolidated the updated version and prepared the content draft. The Public Relations unit of the Office of the Administrator was in charge of the design and printing of the handbook.
The service standards of the revised NTA Citizen’s Charter are already posted in the official website of the agency.