Candidates for Seal of Good Local Governance screened

The Department of the Interior and Local Government in Central Visayas (DILG-7) is now one step closer to determining this year's Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awardees.

Corina Balansag, the local government operations officer of DILG-7, said the agency had just finished screening the local government units vying for the SGLG awards.

She said the two-day regional calibration ended Wednesday, covering a rigorous process of selecting or short-listing the awardees.

“We are now finalizing the supporting documents before we forward the shortlist to the DILG-Bureau of Local Government Supervision for the national calibration or assessment,” she told The FREEMAN.

The national assessment will be followed by a crossregional evaluation, wherein the list from a certain region is validated by another regional office, she added.

The assessed list will be submitted back to BLGS for final assessment.

The shortlisted LGUs are from the 10 cities and the 97 municipalities of the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, and Siquijor.

Balansag said the data gathering from the LGUs alone spanned for almost three weeks in May.

The LGUs are assessed based on four vital areas — financial administration, disaster preparedness, social protection, and peace and order.

Other aspects considered during the assessment include environmental management, business friendliness and competitiveness, tourism, culture, and arts.

For an LGU to become an SGLG recipient, it has to pass the core assessment areas — good financial housekeeping, social protection and disaster preparedness, and at least one from the essential assessment areas — business-friendliness and competitiveness, peace and order or environmental management.

The regional validation team is using the Data Capture Forms to evaluate the LGU. The assessment report will go through a series of validations conducted by the provincial, regional, and national teams.

The national office will then give the overall assessment based on responses of the LGU's Team to questions provided in the Data Capture Forms. The LGU's team is composed mostly of department heads.

The assessment is also based on the DILG's Local Government Performance Management System (LGPMS), a web-based, self-assessment tool.

The awarding was introduced to encourage and challenge LGUs to continue good governance practices and to improve their services.

The SGLG awardee will receive a Performance Challenge Fund, a seal, and an access to national government programs like loan grants.

The awarding is slated for October this year.

B. Miasco/KBQ