A governance approach to rightsizing (2)

HOUSE Bill 5707, also known as the "Rightsizing the National Government Act," was the last legislative proposal that aimed to reorganize government since Congress was revived a year after the exit of the Marcos dictatorship. (At that time, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. assumed the powers of Congress to legislate.) HB 5707, however, did not go through the Senate although it passed the House of Representatives.

The bill proposed the creation of a Committee on Rightsizing the Executive Branch to develop the overall rightsizing program and to oversee the implementation of the Act. The committee was supposed to be composed of the executive secretary as the chairman, the head of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as co-chairman, and the socioeconomic planning secretary, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) chairman and the head of the Presidential Management Staff as members. Specific tasks included formulating the policies, framework, mechanisms to be adopted in the implementation of the Act. The committee would have authority "to conduct studies on the functions, programs, projects, operations, structure, and manpower complement of the different departments/agencies and to develop and prepare the rightsized organizational structure of departments/agencies concerned and the corresponding executive issuances for approval by the president."