43 P’sinan Towns Fete with SGFH

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 DAGUPAN CITY -  Forty- three local government units (LGUs) in Pangasinan have been awarded with the prestigious Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping (SGFH) by the Department of Interior & Local Government for complying with the accounting and auditing standards and rules and regulations.

Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping (SGFH) Awardees: From top left and clockwise photos are Lingayen Mayor Pol Bataoil, Manaoag Mayor Ming Rosario, Rosales Mayor William Cezar, Alcala Mayor Jojo Callejo, Urbiztondo Mayor Moding Operana, Sta. Barbara Mayor Lito Zaplan, San Fabian Mayor Marlyn Agbayani and Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe Parayno.

According to a document signed by Bureau of Local Government Supervision OIC Director Debie V. Torres, CESO V, the LGUs are Agno, Aguilar, Alcala, Anda, Asingan, Balungao, Bani, Basista, Bautista, Bayambang, Binalonan, Binmaley, Bolinao, Bugallon, Burgos, Dasol, Infanta, Labrador, Laoac, Lingayen, Mabini, Malasiqui, Manaoag, Mangaldan, Mangatarem, Mapandan, Natividad, Pozorrubio, Rosales, San Fabian, San Jacinto, San Manuel, San Nicolas, San Quintin, Sta. Barbara, Sto. Tomas, Santa Maria, Sison, Sual, Tayug, Umingan, Urbiztondo and Villasis.

The requirements for passing the SGFH are: (1) the most recent available Commission on Audit (COA) audit opinion and (2) compliance with the Full Disclosure Policy by posting all required financial documents in three conspicuous places and in the FDP portal.

 The SGFH is one of the three core components to hurdle the most challenging award body’s Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) where an LGU should pass all the three components of Good Financial Housekeeping, Disaster Preparedness, and Social Protection and one of the three essential components in either of the business friendliness and competitiveness, peace and order and environmental management. It is dubbed as “3 + 1”.

Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping (SGFH) Awardees: From top left and clockwise photos are Basista Mayor J.R Resuello, Bayambang Mayor Niña Jose-Quiambao, Labrador Mayor Ernie Acain and Binmaley Mayor Pete Merrera.

The achievement of a province, city, or province of the Good Housekeeping component means that the local government can be allowed to contract bank loans and access more national government funding such as the Bottom-Up Budgeting Program (the precursor of the Assistance to Disadvantaged Municipalities program). The financial incentives for local government passers are indispensable because most local governments are still highly dependent on their national tax allotment (NAT) (the successor of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) ) which is the automatic share of local government budgets from the national budget, and are not fully able to generate local income to sustain their basic administrative and service delivery functions.

 The increasing awareness of LGU officials about the technicalities of service delivery laws was an added value by itself. The motivation that makes public officials strive to hurdle the SGFH and the SGLG was the prestige and the “peer pressure”. Local governments put up big tarpaulins announcing their SGLG win particularly in their localities, as a testament to their performance. Governors and mayors would confer with each other if each had won their Seals otherwise they would be pressured to “not get left behind”. It is a race for exemplary local government performance.