LEGAZPI CITY:
At least 79 of the 120 local government units (LGUs) in Bicol are assured of
P45 million in extra funding for three years from the national government’s
Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP), according to the regional
office here of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The fund, which
will come in the amount of P15 million yearly, will be used in GPBP-driven
initiatives such as projects which include those on agri-livelihood,
farm-to-market roads, irrigation, and other agri-infra facilities.
Formerly known
as the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB), GPBP, being applied by the administration of
President Benigno Aquino III, is a somewhat modern approach to planning in the
use of government’s financial resources that is different from the usual
top-down budgeting where the high level executives make all the decisions in fund
dispensations.
It seeks to
make the national budget more responsive to local needs, provide incentives for
local good governance, strengthen the devolution of basic services delivery,
create a conducive environment conducive to people’s participation, and
generate demand for good governance at the local level.
This scheme
also provides the opportunity for grantees to be involved in setting their own
goals and expectations for a given financial period and gives them ownership of
the decisions, motivating them to meet budgetary constraints that otherwise
might seem unattainable or unrealistic if they were delivered by someone
without as much understanding of their day-to-day operations.
The 79 Bicol
LGUs that are considered early qualifiers to the fund are in the region’s six
provinces — Albay, CamNorte, CamSur, Catanduanes, Masbate, and Sorsogon; six of
the seven cities–Naga, Iriga, Legazpi, Tabaco, Ligao, and Masbate; and 68 of
the 105 municipalities.
Of these
municipalities, Albay, Camarines Norte, and Catanduanes have 11 each; Camarines
Sur, 16; Masbate, 10; and Sorsogon, 9.
These LGUs
automatically qualify to the GPBP for having met the requirements, such as
being the recipient of DILG’s Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH) and
implementation of Public Financial Management Improvement Plan (PFMIP) as
determined by the Department of Budget and Management, DILG Regional Director
Eluisa Pastor said.
Introduced in
2012 by the late DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo before his death in a plane
accident in August of the same year, SGH is an award system to LGUs that will
successfully meet the requirements of full disclosure policy, have exemplary
standards of frontline services and procurement, and proven to have no adverse
or disclaimer audit findings by the Commission on Audit.
Starting this
year, the DILG is scaling up the SGH into the Seal of Good Local Governance
(SGLG) to cover a much wider LGU performance such as good financial
housekeeping, disaster preparedness, social protection for the basic sector,
business friendliness and competitiveness, environmental compliance, and law
and order and public safety.
The Bicol list
of early GPBP qualifiers is not final though, as further evaluations are
undergoing for others that have not been included in the roster based on the
SGH and PFMIP criteria which may still be added when results become favorable
to them.
The evaluations
include the budgeting process and the selection of Local Poverty Reduction
Action Teams consisting of both LGUs and civil society organizations and the
updating and validation to form the basis for the Local Poverty Reduction
Action Plans.
After the
consolidated list of projects are validated and reviewed by the Regional
Poverty Reduction Action Team through the DILG regional office, it will be
submitted to the National Anti-Poverty Commission and the Regional Development
Council for endorsement to the GPBP oversight agencies.
The list of
approved projects will be downloaded to the respective Sangguniang Bayan for
approval, as the LGUs are required to provide counterpart funds, Pastor said.
-- PNA
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