THE Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City on December 6 officially granted the City of San Fernando’s Business License and Permit Division (BLPD) the Level II Blue Certification, the highest level of certification ever reached by a local government unit in the history of the Blue Certification Program.
The Blue Certification Program is created to thoroughly assess local government units’ (LGUs) efficiency in performing business licensing processes and procedures, without the burden of red tape.
This will be the first in Central Luzon.
In August of this year, the City Government underwent validation, where it passed the required compliance rating, a prerequisite to acquire a Level II compliance.
BLPD has acquired a total of 69 complied standards (79.31 percent), divided into nine categories including application form, requirements, procedure, IT-enabled system, citizen’s charter, customer convenience, anti-fixing mechanism, business permit, and continuous improvement.
During the validation, Joseph Marion Navarrete of the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon noted that business transactions in the city are well-managed and corruption-free.
“From application to processing, operations of offices in the city government are orderly and less prone to corruption,” he said.
For his part, Mayor Edwin Santiago expressed his gratitude to the Office of the Ombudsman for recognizing the city’s efforts and vowed for continuous “competent and hassle-free” transactions.
With the Level II Blue Certification, Santiago said that the city can now share its success to the whole Fernandino community and its partners.
“We have once more proven the ease of doing business in San Fernando. This is shared success with the whole Fernandino people and with all the businessmen and investors who have been considering the city as a fine business destination,” Santiago said. (JTD)