Established on 1st April 2004 following the merger of the former Registry of Companies and Businesses (RCB) and the Public Accountants Board, ACRA is responsible for providing a responsive and forward-looking regulatory environment for enterprise in Singapore. ACRA’s BizFile online business filing service was developed to make the business registration process more accessible. BizFile enables the public to file all legally prescribed business forms and their supporting documents for the purposes of registration and statutory disclosure requirements over the internet.
At the same time BizFile also provides the public with access to a suite of electronic services for retrieving and purchasing all forms lodged and information pertaining to businesses registered with ACRA.
“We wanted to cut red tape and this meant that we need to conduct a rules review,” explains Juthika Ramanathan, Chief Executive of ACRA. “So we looked at the processes we had, and then questioned whether we needed to retain the rules and processes in order to achieve the same objective.”
According Ramanathan ACRA started off with a blank sheet of paper, and prioritised the elimination of labour intensive work, particularly the need for manual data entry and the correction of discrepancies.
“With the implementation of online filing, the need for a statement of witness by a third party was no longer required,” she explains. “The giving of false information is already an offence by law. The removal of this requirement has also reduced the need for additional costs for business by going to a commissioner of oaths.”
ACRA also looked again at the purpose of the paper certificate issued to companies. Finding it to be used as confirmation for banks and other government departments, ACRA replaced the paper certificate with email notifications. Businesses and companies can now purchase a profile of their business or company online, using BizFile, as evidence of their entity’s existence if necessary.
“There had to be an effective user-friendly filing system for all forms and supporting documents,” she says. “And at the same time we wanted to build an effective compliance system to monitor statutory disclosure requirements.”
Other areas that were streamlined included the filing of supporting documentation during the business registration process: “With online filing we got rid of the need to manually file bulky documents,” says Ramanathan.
“We removed all forms of signature. None of our online forms require signature, instead you can use the SingPass, a unique ID which is issued free to all citizens and permanent residents. This SingPass allows you to access BizFile, with the appropriate access rights for information submission and retrieval.”
“Our work has led to a faster turnaround time, made ACRA’s workload less labour intensive, has enabled us to give an immediate response to users, and reduced the amount of time it takes for us to update our database,” says Ramanathan.
Business rules now cover 95 per cent of ACRA’s business processes, freeing up staff to allow for increased productivity, and redeployment of resources to critical tasks such as customer service and regulatory supervision.
“As you might expect, this has allowed us to cut the cost of the business registration process,” she says.
Where incorporation fees used to range between S$1200-S$35,000 there is now a flat fee of S$300 and registration of Sole Proprietorships/ Partnerships have also been reduced from S$105 to S$65. For individuals without internet access the BizFile services can be accessed at the premises of ACRA.
“There is always room for improvement,” Ramanathan concludes. “We need to continuously review legislation and carry out system enhancements, as well as explore new avenues for online filing. Our next initiative is to further streamline and enhance the system to make it more user friendly.”
Autor: James Smith
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 06.04.2005
