BAGUIO CITY – The city government copped the 2016 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG), an incentives program of the Dept. of Interior and Local Government (DILG), for turning in good performance in various areas of governance.
This is the city’s third SGLG in as many years since the program was launched in 2014 as a scaled up version of the Seal of Good Housekeeping.
The SGLG symbolizes “the city’s commitment towards good local governance and passing five out of six Local Governance Assessment Areas for the year 2016” particularly in financial administration, disaster preparedness, social protection, business friendliness and competitiveness and environmental management.”
The city fell short in the aspect of peace and order which it passed in 2014 and 2015.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan received the award from DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno during the SGLG and LTIA awarding ceremonies held last Oct. 27 in Pasay City. DILG city director Evelyn Trinidad accompanied the mayor during the awarding rites.
The city was among the 306 qualifiers out of a total of 1,672 local government units in the country of which 81 are provinces, 145 are cities and 1,446 are municipalities.
The mayor expressed pride that many LGUs in the Cordillera region also received the award including Benguet, Mt. Province and Kalinga provinces and six towns in Abra (Bucay, Dolores, La Paz, Penarrubia, San Juan and Tayum) and three municipalities each in Apayao (Buclod, Sta. Marcela and Luna) and Benguet (La Trinidad, Itogon and Kapangan) and Paracelis in Mt. Province and Balbalan in Kalinga. Tabuk City also shared the award in the city category.
The SGLG is an upgraded SGH incentive which aimed to promote transparency and accountability in the use of public funds by delivering basic services responsive to the people’s needs under good governance.
According to the DILG, the SGH only measured the levels of compliance to the Department’s Full Disclosure Policy, particularly in the areas of budget, revenues and procurement, among others, having no adverse COA findings, as well as meeting the requirements of Anti-Red Tape Act.
The SGLG covers more areas of governance to provide greater challenge to our local governments to continue good governance practices while providing better services.
Based on DILG guidelines, a local government can qualify as a SGLG recipient if it passes the three major standards – good financial housekeeping, the existence of a disaster reduction and management plan and the provision of social protection services.
Those who qualified for the SGLG will have the opportunity to avail of additional funds for their priority development projects from the government’s Performance Challenge Fund./Aileen P. Refuerzo
