BAGUIO CITY – The city government will vie for a Seal of Good Local Governance to prove its good governance practices and services.
A program of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the SGLG is a scaled up Seal of Good Housekeeping (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.
The DILG Cordillera has begun conducting the SGLG assessment and screening of the city of Baguio to support its campaign for the new coveted seal following its successful bid for SGH in 2014.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan directed concerned departments to provide the needed documentary requirements to qualify the city’s bid in face of the broadened coverage and criteria of the new seal.
“This is a challenge for us and we need to exceed our previous performance, if not, sustain the status of the city as one of the Seal of Good Local Governance,” stressed Domogan.
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 which will cover more areas of governance was introduced 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.
The local government will also be evaluated on business-friendliness and competitiveness, peace and order and environmental preservation and protection programs among others.
Those who will qualify for the SGLG will have the opportunity to avail of additional funds for their priority development projects from the government’s Performance Challenge Fund./Jho Arranz
