DILG gives province “generally good” mark

CEBU, Philippines - The state of local governance of the Province of Cebu for 2012 is “generally good,” says the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The rating is based on the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS).

Governor Hilario Davide III, some Provincial Board members, Capitol department heads and staff attended the State of Local Governance Exit Conference led by DILG provincial director Jerome Gonzales last week.

“This is an opportunity to find out from them kung unsa nay na buhat ug unsa pay angay nga buhaton nato. I hope after this, we will have a new perspective to carry out the things that we need to do (This is an opportunity to find out what has been done and what remains to be done. I hope, after this, we will have a new perspective to carry out the things that we need to do),” Davide said.

While the general assessment is good, Gonzales stressed there are still areas that need attention.

LGPMS, according to Gonzales, is a self-assessment tool to measure the performance of local government units (LGUs).

The data input in the LGPMS-based forms was taken from the department heads’ answers to the questions in the forms.

The LGUs are graded in a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest) in the following areas: Administrative Governance, Economic Governance, Social Governance, Valuing Fundamentals of Governance, and Environmental Governance.

The performance areas also have different sub-areas. In Administrative Governance for instance, the province got a score of 5 in development planning, but only scored 3.55 in resource allocation and utilization.

On Economic Governance, the province got excellent scores for its support to fishery services and entrepreneurship, as well as in business and industry promotion, but fell short in its support to agriculture.

In the field of Social Governance, the province needs to beef up its effort in health services; education; housing and basic utilities; and peace, security and disaster risk management.

The province got a perfect score in transparency but needs improvement in participation and financial accountability in the area of Valuing Fundamentals of Governance.

In the area of Environmental Governance, the province scored 5 in forest ecosystem management and marine ecosystem management, but got only 2 points in freshwater ecosystem management and 4.60 in urban ecosystem management.

Gonzales, however, admitted the LGMPS is not a holistic approach to determine the performance of a particular LGU, as it is based only on the common criteria that can be applied to all LGUs nationwide.

The DILG also talked about the Executive and Legislative Agenda (ELA), which is a planning document that is mutually developed and agreed upon by both the executive and legislative departments of an LGU.

According to DILG, the ELA leads the executive and legislative branches towards a unified vision, agree on priority problems and issues, and help them focus on a set of interventions towards the attainment of common set of objectives for the next three years. — (FREEMAN)