Quezon City– The Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Executive Director Ma. Pamela P. Quizon presented the proposed CY2023 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) assessment criteria on Area 1: Financial Administration and Sustainability, in a bid to uphold the practice of fiscal discipline and sustainability and transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, during the Council of Good Local Governance (CGLG) Meeting, presentation of the proposed CY2023 SGLG performance indicators, on 10 February 2023, at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) NAPOLCOM Center Quezon City.  

Pursuant to the Republic Act (RA) No. 11292 or the SGLG Act of 2018, LGUs should attain the conditions covering the ten (10) governance areas, namely: (i) Financial Administration and Sustainability (FA); (ii) Disaster Preparedness (DP); (iii) Social Protection and Sensitivity (SPS); (iv) Health Compliance and Responsiveness (HCR); (v) Sustainable Education (SE); (vi) Business-Friendliness and Competitiveness (BFC); (vii) Safety, Peace, and Order (SPO); (viii) Environmental Management (EM); (ix) Tourism, Heritage Development, Culture, and Arts (THDCA); and (x) Youth Development (YD). 

In the said meeting, the CGLG reported the compliance rate per governance area based on the ranking set by the local government units (LGUs). FA ranked 6th (43%) in the most challenging areas, with high compliance of 97% and 93%, respectively, for the indicators on Performance Challenge Fund and Annual Budget. Further, FA reportedly attained low compliance on the indicators: Utilization of 20% Local Development Fund (70%) and positive increase in average local revenue growth, with compliance rates of 70% and 75%, respectively.   

The CGLG, chaired by the DILG, is composed of representatives from the nine (9) national government agencies and representatives from the basic sectors as nominated by the National Poverty Commission. The BLGF, together with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Commission on Audit (COA), and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), is a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) on Financial Administration and Sustainability Area. The said TWG is mandated by Section 7 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the SGLG Act to recommend to the CGLG the parameters to be used in the Financial Administration Area that shall serve as standards for evaluating LGUs compliance.