/PNA
TACLOBAN CITY — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will bring the much-coveted Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) down to the barangay (village) level next year.
The department has been developing the scheme for the village-level SGLG and it is ready for launch next year, said Assistant Secretary Marivel Sacendoncillo, who is also director of DILG 8 (Eastern Visayas).
“By conferring the seal on qualified barangays, we hope to see real decentralization practiced down to the grassroots,” Sacendoncillo said on Thursday.
Launched in 2014, the SGLG, which evolved from its predecessor the Seal of Good Housekeeping in 2011, is an award and incentive program for performing local government units.
It is based on the core areas of financial administration, disaster preparedness, social protection, and any of the essential areas — business friendliness and competitiveness, peace and order, and environmental management, otherwise known as the “3+1” principle of the Seal.
Winners will get cash rewards, which will be used to develop projects in their communities.
The Commission on Audit (COA), according to the DILG official, will embark on a massive training of citizens to participate in the auditing process. Audit findings will help the central government identify if barangay officials are good in financial housekeeping.
“The hurdle is the audit since COA cannot conduct an audit in all villages of the country. The audit for villages is being done every three years and not all areas are covered. Remember that in the barangay level, many magic are happening,” Sacendoncillo said.
For 2018, the DILG conferred the SGLG award to only five local government units in Eastern Visayas – Salcedo and Sulat in Eastern Samar; Barugo, Leyte; Gamay, Northern Samar; and Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte.
