The Business Regulatory Review Agency – BRRA has announced its move to have an operational upgraded e-Registry and the notice & Comment system by end of 2019, aimed at improving access to information on business regulatory frameworks in country and promoting transparency in administration of government to business services.
One of the key business reforms in the country has been the deployment of an e-Registry, which is a centralised database and online platform holding information on licenses, certificates, permits, authorizations and regulations. While the Notice and Comment system is designed to allow citizens provide Government with feedback on proposed laws and regulations.
In a statement made available to the Zambian business times – BRRA, Executive Director Sharon Sichilongo has disclosed that the Agency has continued to update information on the e-Registry with details on regulatory frameworks from 11 public bodies having been vetted and uploaded onto the e-Registry adding that the Vetting of regulatory frameworks was done in conjunction with Ministry of Justice.
She explained that BRRA has collaborated with the World Bank Group – WBG country team to upgrade the e-Registry and incorporate a Notice-and-Comments system stating that the e-Registry will be upgraded by implementing the latest version of the WBG owned business licensing e-Registry while the Notice-and-Comments system will be designed to enable citizens and businesses provide Government with feedback on laws and regulations to be implemented.
“The mandate of BRRA is to review existing as well as proposed policies and laws affecting business activity in order to ensure that they serve a legitimate purpose and to develop and implement initiatives aimed at improving Government-to-Business service delivery as well as increase access to business registration services. Both the e-Registry and Notice and Comment will contribute to the attainment of BRRA’s strategic objectives of improving the quality of business regulations and improving delivery of business regulatory services” she said.
Sichilongo further said the Agency was scaling up its capacity-building programme in Regulatory Impact Assessment and would soon be holding sensitisation and capacity building workshops for chief executive officers from over 36 regulatory agencies.
The Regulatory Impact Assessment – RIA is a detailed systematic appraisal of the potential impacts of a proposed policy or regulation in order to assess whether the regulation is likely to achieve the desired objective and the costs of regulation are justified.
The Zambian government has experienced embarrassing regulatory roll backs due to the different ministerial regulatory bodies and line ministries passing regulation that has not undergone public debate, has not had a business regulatory impact assessment done before implementation.
