EDITORIAL - Simplified rules

With more than 20 major companies committing to use their own generators next summer, lawmakers no longer see a need to give emergency or special powers to President Aquino. These days the government is projecting blackouts lasting no more than an hour a day next summer. And the situation could improve if more companies commit to use generators for their operations.

In making the proposal, the government had hoped, among other things, that the President would be empowered to approve contracts for additional energy capacity without public bidding. This was envisioned to speed up response in case the warning of experts about serious power outages in the summer of 2015 materialized.

Thanks to cooperation from the private sector, it looks like there will be no energy crisis next summer. But the case should prompt the government to review processes that slow down emergency response, delivery of public services and implementation of projects and programs.

The review can start with bidding procedures. Numerous government projects, from big-ticket to minor ones, have been stalled at the bidding stage. Laws on government procurement can be fine-tuned so that simplified procedures can be followed throughout the government, from national agencies to the smallest local units. Where possible, the rules must be uniformly applied to prevent confusion and make it easier to do business.

As everyone knows, red tape is deliberately designed into systems and procedures to encourage the payment of “facilitation fees” or grease money. In certain local government units, red tape also gives undue advantage to the dominant political clan, whose members and cronies enjoy express service in all their dealings with the LGU while keeping out potential competition.

Those layers of bureaucratic requirements, many of them redundant and calling for unnecessary fees, have retarded national competitiveness and driven away investors to neighboring countries where simplified rules have made it much easier to do business. Complicated rules, on top of weak regulation and uncertainty in the business environment, have also discouraged needed investments in the energy sector – the reason why blackouts loom next summer. The projected energy shortage should pave the way for necessary reforms.