Tacurong City receives DILG Seal of Good Housekeeping

The City of Tacurong was awarded a Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH) by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in recognition of the city’s excellent performance in local governance.

DILG XII Regional Director Buagas Sulaik officially informed City Mayor Lina Montilla of the award in a letter received by the latter on June 24, 2011.

Tacurong, which belongs to the second batch of SGH recipients this year, is one among the only five cities in the Philippines and the only one from Mindanao belonging to the 4^th to 6^th class to be conferred with the award. The other awardees for the cities category are Alaminos, Pangasinan; Candan, Ilocos Sur; Passi, Iloilo; and Vigan, Ilocos Sur. They are joined by municipalities belonging to the 4^th to 6^th class stamped also with SGH seal.

The Seal of Good Housekeeping is a mechanism comprising a set of criteria aimed at recognizing Local government Units (LGUs) with good performance in internal housekeeping particularly in the areas of Planning, Sound Fiscal Management, Transparency and Accountability, and Valuing Performance Management.

Among the key components of the SGH criteria are compliance to the mandates of the Anti-Red Tape Act as well as to the Full Disclosure Policy of the DILG. Further, LGUs stamped with Good Housekeeping Seal should have “no adverse” report from the Commission on Audit, which means that they should have complied with all the requirements of the government’s auditing agency. Emphasis is also given to the LGU’s compliance to the mandates of the Anti-Red Tape Act.

Tacurong was evaluated in March by the team from DILG Regional Office. Several data were gathered from offices concerned; interviews were conducted; and even the records of the local police station were checked as to the peace and order condition of the locality. After passing the regional evaluation, Tacurong made it through the National Table Assessment and Validation, and subsequently stamped with SGH Seal.

Director Sulaik also informed Mayor Montilla that by passing the national assessment on Good Housekeeping, Tacurong is now eligible to access the 2011 Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) amounting to three (3) million pesos. The PCF is an incentive fund to LGUs in the form of counterpart for projects to be financed from the 20% component of the LGU’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

Mayor Montilla is ecstatic at the recent accomplishment of LGU Tacurong. “I am very happy with the most recent award we received, but then again ,we only have to work harder; after all, this is what we, public servants, are expected to do”, Mayor Montilla said.

Less than a year since assuming office as the mayor of Tacurong, the LGU has already received two national awards, the first of which was the Seal of Excellence from the Civil Service Commission in December 2010. (Allan Freno, LGU-Tacurong City)