Law No. 167-21 on Regulatory Improvement and Simplification of Procedures

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Law No. 167-21 on Regulatory Improvement and Simplification of Procedures. Official Gazette No. 11030 of August 12, 2021.

THE NATIONAL CONGRESS In the Name of the Republic

Law No. 167-21

First Consideration: That in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic, the Public Administration is subject in its actions to the principles of effectiveness, hierarchy, objectivity, equality, transparency, economy, publicity, and coordination, with full submission to the State's legal framework.

Second Consideration: That the administrative function comprises any mission, competence, or activity of general interest, granted in accordance with the principle of legality, to regulate, design, approve, execute, supervise, evaluate, and control public policies or supply public services, regardless of their industrial or commercial purpose and always provided they do not assume a legislative or jurisdictional character.

Third Consideration: That the National Development Strategy establishes the need to promote a pro-competitive State that reduces the costs, procedures, and timeframes that currently govern the Public Administration in the provision of services to natural and legal persons, in accordance with the competencies of its bodies.

Fourth Consideration: That the modern Public Administration, in accordance with international standards, requires the establishment and effective application of an updated normative framework for the coordination of its institutions, to prevent, discontinue, or eliminate the duplication of procedures, services, authorizations, and overlaps of functions, with the aim of improving the environment of legal security, legal certainty, and corporate social responsibility.

Fifth Consideration: That in accordance with the principles of reasonableness and rationality, it is necessary to establish objective criteria to determine what is fair and useful for society, and to guide itself through good administrative decisions that objectively value all interests at stake.

Sixth Consideration: That, by virtue of the principles of coordination, collaboration, and institutional loyalty, the various bodies and organs of the Public Administration must coordinate the development of their activities and collaborate with each other, with the objective of maintaining a coherent institutional orientation that guarantees and respects the complementarity of their respective missions and competencies.

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Seventh Consideration: That, by virtue of the principle of effectiveness, administrative authorities must remove purely formal obstacles ex officio and avoid the lack of response to formulated requests, as well as unjustified delays.

Eighth Consideration: That the use of regulatory impact analysis proves to be the adequate public policy mechanism to determine whether the benefits of regulations exceed their costs, allowing for an objective evaluation of whether they are truly necessary.

Ninth Consideration: That the guiding principles established by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), recognized internationally, recommend that prior to the issuance of regulations, adequate planning, the preparation of impact analyses, and the incorporation of public consultation as an integral element of the entire process of design, production, and implementation of regulations be carried out.

Tenth Consideration: That international best practices in regulatory matters are oriented towards the institutionalization of analysis mechanisms that allow identifying the potential effects of legislative and administrative norms, as well as guaranteeing that the benefits of regulations are superior to their costs, thus contributing to the economic growth of nations.

Eleventh Consideration: That Law No. 247-12, of August 9, 2012, Organic Law of the Public Administration, establishes that the bodies and organs of the Public Administration shall seek to use new technologies, such as electronic, computer, and telematic means, which can be used to improve the efficiency, productivity, and transparency of administrative procedures and the provision of public services.

Twelfth Consideration: That excessive bureaucracy results not only in a slowdown of requests presented to the administration but also in an increase and raising of costs, both for the regulated parties and for the Public Administration itself.

Thirteenth Consideration: That it is necessary to provide the Dominican legal system with a general normative instrument that lays the regulatory foundations to initiate the process of simplification of procedures and processes known by the Public Administration.

Viewed: The Constitution of the Republic. Viewed: The Ruling of the Constitutional Court, TC/0303/14, of December 19, 2014. Viewed: The Ruling of the Constitutional Court, TC/0001/15, of January 28, 2015.

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Viewed: Law No. 126-02, of September 4, 2002, on Electronic Commerce, Documents, and Digital Signatures. Viewed: Law No. 200-04, of July 28, 2004, General Law on Free Access to Public Information. Viewed: Law No. 41-08, of January 16, 2008, on Public Service and creating the State Secretariat of Public Administration. Viewed: Law No. 1-12, of January 25, 2012, which establishes the National Development Strategy 2030. Viewed: Law No. 247-12, of August 9, 2012, Organic Law of the Public Administration. Viewed: Law No. 107-13, of August 6, 2013, on the Rights of Persons in their Relations with the Administration and Administrative Procedure. Seen: Decree No. 1090-04, of September 3, 2004, which creates the Presidential Office of Information and Communication Technology (OPTIC), as a direct dependency of the Executive Power. Seen: Decree No. 130-05, of February 25, 2005, which approves the Regulations of the General Law on Free Access to Public Information. Seen: Decree No. 192-07, of April 3, 2007, which creates the Regulatory Improvement Program under the coordination of the National Competitiveness Council. Seen: Decree No. 229-18, of June 19, 2018, which establishes the Procedures Simplification Program (P.S.T). Seen: Decree No. 258-18, of July 11, 2018, which designates the Executive Directorate of the National Competitiveness Council to carry out the determination of the cost of existing regulations on the national economy through the use of scientific technologies governing the matter. Seen: Decree No. 54-21, of February 2, 2021, which changes the name of the Presidential Office of Information and Communication Technology to the Government Office of Information and Communication Technology, dependent on the Ministry of Public Administration. Modifies articles 1 and 14 of Decree No. 1090-04 and repeals articles 7 and 8 of Decree No. 374-20. Viewed: The 2012 Recommendation of the Council of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on Regulatory Policy and Governance.

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HAS ENACTED THE FOLLOWING LAW:

CHAPTER I ON THE OBJECT, SCOPE OF APPLICATION, DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW

Article 1.- Object. This law aims to define and articulate public policies directed at regulatory improvement and the simplification of administrative procedures.

Article 2.- Scope of Application. This law is applicable to all bodies and organs that integrate the Public Administration, centralized, functionally and territorially decentralized, autonomous organisms, public companies, and corporations of public law. Paragraph: The provisions established in this law may be adopted by the Legislative and Judicial powers and extrapower organs, to the extent that they exercise administrative functions compatible with their respective regulations, under their own guidelines, creation, regulation, and implementation.

Article 3.- Definitions. For the purposes of this law, the following are understood:

1. Regulatory Agenda or Planning: It is a list of all regulations that the various bodies and organs of the Public Administration intend to promulgate, modify, and repeal within a specific period of time.
2. Regulatory Quality Analysis: It is the integral, gradual, and continuous process of studying existing general normative provisions that establish administrative procedures and create procedures and services. It constitutes a tool to evaluate the effects and costs of existing administrative procedures in relation to the regulation that created them.
3. Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA): It is the public policy instrument that allows determining whether the benefits of regulations exceed their costs and objectively evaluating if they are necessary and justified for the achievement of public policy objectives.
4. Convening Authority: It is the body or organ contained within the scope of application of this law responsible for elaborating the regulatory proposal.
5. Benefit: It is the increase in social and economic welfare generated from the application of regulations, considering also as benefit the costs avoided by their application.

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6. Administrative Burden: It is any activity or procedure of an administrative nature that the regulated parties must carry out to comply with obligations derived from the State's regulatory activity.
7. Regulatory Cycle: It is the process carried out to draft and review a regulation, composed of planning, the public consultation stage, the preparation of regulatory impact analysis, publication, and implementation and monitoring.
8. Public Consultation: It is a mechanism of citizen participation used to transparentize the process of production and review of regulations, allowing the reception of comments from different interested groups and the general public.
9. Costs: It refers to the reduction of social and economic welfare derived from compliance with regulations, which can be, according to their nature, direct or indirect, quantifiable or non-quantifiable, and attributable to consumers, taxpayers, companies, government, authorities, and other groups.
10. Compliance Costs: It refers to the direct or indirect costs incurred by companies or other parties to whom the regulation is directed when carrying out the necessary actions to comply with regulatory requirements, as well as costs to the government for the administration and application of the regulation.
11. Ex ante: It is the prospective temporal reference that alludes to any moment prior to the entry into force of a specific regulation, seeking to identify probable net benefits either in social and economic terms.
12. Ex post: It is the retrospective temporal reference that alludes to any moment after the entry into force of a specific regulation, seeking to identify whether the implemented measure achieved the previously established objectives or if an adjustment is necessary for the achievement of future goals.
13. Interoperability: It is the capacity of Information and Communications Technology systems to interconnect data and processes to share information and knowledge within the framework of protection, ethics, and security, in an agile, efficient, and transparent manner between public administrations.
14. Regulatory Improvement: It is the public policy that contributes to the State's decision-making process by allowing the generation of clear norms, simplified procedures and services, as well as effective institutions for their creation and application, oriented towards obtaining the maximum possible value from available resources and the optimal functioning of productive, service, and human development activities of society as a whole.

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15. Single Registry of Regulatory Improvement: It is the official portal of the Public Administration for the registration of procedures, administrative regulations, the carrying out of public consultation, the presentation and publication of regulatory planning, and the publication of regulatory impact analysis.
16. Regulatory Proposal: It refers to the draft regulation that the convening authority intends to issue within the scope of its competencies.
17. Single Registry of Administrative Regulations: It is the online repository composed of the digital version of existing administrative regulations by type of regulation, institution, and economic sector.
18. Regulation: It is the general administrative act issued by the Public Administration, materialized in any legal instrument.
19. Service: It is any benefit or activity that, within the scope of their competencies, the bodies and organs of the Public Administration provide to natural and legal persons, upon prior request and compliance with applicable requirements.
20. Government Procedure: It refers to any administrative procedure carried out by natural or legal persons before the various bodies and organs of the Public Administration, in order to make a request or deliver information, for the purpose of fulfilling an obligation, obtaining a benefit or public service, or for an administrative act to be issued. Furthermore, obligations to keep records or documents are considered government procedures, with the exception of those that only need to be presented upon express request of the Public Administration.

Article 4.- Principles. The principles governing this law are the following:

1. Principle of posterior control. The administrative authority reserves the right to verify the truthfulness of the information presented and compliance with substantive regulations, initiating pertinent sanctioning procedures in case the information presented is not truthful.
2. Principle of utility and relevance. Congruence between the object of the administrative procedure and the requirements demanded. A requirement will be irrelevant when it has no relation to the object of the procedure.
3. Principle of open government. Guarantee the participation of interested parties in the regulatory process and the formulation of clear and understandable rules, as well as their evaluation.
4. Principle of commitment to regulatory quality. Officials of the bodies and organs of the Public Administration must have clarity on the objectives for the implementation of regulatory improvement and administrative simplification.

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CHAPTER II ON THE TOOLS FOR REGULATORY IMPROVEMENT

Article 5.- Regulatory Improvement Tools. The following are considered regulatory improvement tools:

1. The regulatory agenda or planning.
2. The regulatory impact analysis.
3. The regulatory quality analysis.
4. The simplification of administrative procedures, and
5. The simplification of procedures and public consultation.

SECTION I ON THE REGULATORY AGENDA OR PLANNING

Article 6.- Regulatory Agenda or Planning. It is instructed to the various bodies and organs of the Public Administration to create their regulatory agendas or planning, which must contain the following information:

1. Title of the regulation.
2. Brief and clear description of its objective.
3. Problem it intends to solve.
4. Explanation of its possible impact and affected groups.
5. Express and justified indication regarding the compliance or non-compliance with the significant economic and social criteria established in Article 7.

Article 7.- Significant Economic and Social Criteria. Significant economic and social regulations are those that fall within the following criteria:

1. They create new obligations for the regulated parties or make existing obligations stricter.
2. They create or modify procedures, except when the modification simplifies or facilitates compliance by the individual.

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3. They reduce or restrict rights or benefits for the regulated parties.
4. They establish definitions, classifications, restrictions, characterizations, or any other reference term, that affect or may affect the rights, obligations, benefits, or procedures of the regulated parties.

Article 8.- Submission Deadline. The bodies and organs referred to in Article 2 of this law, within the first ten (10) business days of the months of March and September of each year, in order to guarantee predictability, transparency, participation, and accountability throughout the entire regulatory cycle, will submit their regulatory agenda or planning. Paragraph I: The regulatory agendas or planning must be published by the institutional links in the Single Registry of Regulatory Improvement, established and created henceforth by this law. Paragraph II: Once the regulatory agenda is published and five (5) business days have passed since its publication, the bodies and organs of the Public Administration may initiate the public consultation process for the regulatory proposals included in the agenda. Paragraph III: Regulations that comply with what is established in Article 24 are exempt from inclusion in the regulatory agenda or planning.

SECTION II ON REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS

Article 9.- Ex Ante Regulatory Impact Analysis. The bodies and organs of the Public Administration, within the scope of their competencies, will carry out a regulatory impact analysis for regulatory proposals.

Article 10.- Content of the Regulatory Impact Analysis. The regulatory impact analysis will have the following information:

1. Definition and statement of the problem.
2. Objectives and justification of the regulation.
3. Identification and analysis of different regulatory and non-regulatory alternatives.
4. Public consultation with affected or interested actors.
5. Evaluation of costs and benefits in a qualitative and quantitative manner, to determine the impact of the regulation and the other alternatives.

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6. Implications for the implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and compliance of the regulation.

Article 11.- Submission of Regulatory Impact Analysis. The bodies and organs of the Public Administration, at the time of initiating the public consultation process, will submit the regulatory impact analyses to the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP) for approval.

Article 12.- Content Evaluation Deadline. The Ministry of Public Administration (MAP), from the presentation of the regulatory impact analysis by the bodies and organs of the Public Administration, will have a period of fifteen (15) business days to evaluate and consider whether the content of the regulatory impact analysis complies with what is established in Article 10 of this law, through a technical report that will be published in the Single Registry of Regulatory Improvement. Paragraph: In case the regulatory impact analysis observed by the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP) does not meet the established criteria, the body or organ of the Public Administration promoting the proposal must adhere to the recommendations prior to its issuance.

Article 13.- Ex Post Regulatory Impact Analysis. The bodies and organs of the Public Administration must carry out a regulatory impact analysis of their regulations with at least five (5) years of validity, for the purpose of evaluating the effects of the regulation and determining if they generate greater benefits than the costs of their compliance.

SECTION III ON REGULATORY QUALITY ANALYSIS

Article 14.- Regulatory Quality Analysis (RQA). The Regulatory Quality Analysis (RQA) aims to identify, modify, or eliminate those regulations that establish unnecessary, unjustified, disproportionate, redundant procedures or services, or non-compliant with current law and international best practices in regulatory matters, which will translate into a reduction of administrative burdens.

Article 15.- Criteria and Principles for Regulatory Quality Analysis. The development of the Regulatory Quality Analysis (RQA) must be based on the principles of legality, proportionality, and the criteria of necessity and effectiveness. Paragraph: The Regulatory Quality Analysis (RQA) will focus on identifying and evaluating existing regulations that due to age and changes in the Public Administration or legislative changes require review.

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Article 16.- Periodicity of Regulatory Quality Analysis. The bodies and organs of the Public Administration must carry out the Regulatory Quality Analysis (RQA) periodically, according to the relevance of the regulations issued. Paragraph: It corresponds to the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP) to issue the regulations and application forms for the implementation of the Regulatory Quality Analysis (RQA).

SECTION IV ON THE SIMPLIFICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES

Article 17.- Simplification of Administrative Procedures. The simplification of administrative procedures consists of the standardization and optimization of those administrative procedures that have been subjected to regulatory quality analysis, through the improvement of internal processes that the bodies and organs of the Public Administration perform, allowing for the improvement or reduction of steps and timeframes for their attention and processing costs. Paragraph: Public bodies and organs will apply, permanently, the simplification of the administrative procedures under their charge.

Article 18.- Normative Precision of the Procedure. The bodies and organs of the Public Administration, when establishing procedures and requirements for the applicant, will indicate with precision the normative provision, the regulation that supports said procedure or requirement, and its date of publication. Paragraph: The bodies and organs of the Public Administration will also provide all information relative to the procedures established in this article and enable non-presential consultation channels that allow dispensing with the physical presence of the applicant, except in those cases where the law expressly requires it or circumstances impose it.

Article 19.- Verification of Information. The body or organ of the Public Administration, when verifying the information presented by the applicant, will indicate to the applicant once and in writing that they must complete omitted requirements in