Negros Oriental is vying for the regional Gawad Pamana ng Lahi Award of the Department of Interior and Local Government, its assistant provincial director, Farah Gentuya, said.

She said the province has complied with all of the award indicators, like the Local Governance Performance Management System, where it garnered an overall performance index of 4.45 or “a very good performance”.

It is also compliant with the full disclosure policy, has no adverse reports from the Commission on Audit, and has several innovations that won for itself the Seal of Good Housekeeping award, Gentuya said.

Rep. Pryde Henry Teves (Neg. Or., 3rd District) had earlier shown LGPMS data that showed the top 10 provincial, city and municipal governments all over the country. He said he was saddened to note that Negros Oriental is in the 57 th slot among the 79 provinces, and said this is shameful for a province known for being a topnotcher in terms of performance.

He claimed the province ranked ninth in 2009 and seventh in 2010. He advised Gov. Roel Degamo to gather his consultants and department heads to do something about the “freefalling” nonperformance.

But Gentuya said the LGPMS is a self-assessment tool to assess the level of performance of a local government unit in administration, social services, economic development, environmental management, and fundamentals of good governance. She said it is only one of the indicators in the SGH program.

Degamo said he is not bothered by Teves' revelations because it did not show the whole picture. A team of evaluators will be in the province this week to validate and check the documents submitted by the province.*JG

back to top