DILG-Quirino conducted a one-day Provincial Roll-Out on the 2018 Local Government Support Fund-Assistance to Municipalities (LGSF-AM) Program on July 19, 2018 at 3K Hotel, Santiago City pursuant to DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2018-61 and cognizant of the need to provide further support to the LGUs in the province to enable them to fully carry out functions devolved to them while at the same time building their capacity towards genuine fiscal autonomy.
Municipal Mayors, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators, Municipal Engineers, Municipal Treasurers and Representatives from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) participated in the activity which aimed to prescribe the general policies and mechanics in the implementation of the AM Program to ensure that all concerned are able to abide with the processes and responsibilities in the projects identification, implementation, monitoring and reporting.
Provincial Director Salvacion Z. Baccay stressed in her opening message that since sufficient funds were downloaded for local development projects, it is imperative that recipient LGUs remain accountable and must ensure judicious utilization of government funds. “To achieve sustainable development goals, we need to join our hands together in accomplishing every task,” she added.
The distinct features of the 2018 AM to that of the 2017 ADM and the salient provisions of the memorandum circular were presented by personnel from the Office of Project Development Services (OPDS). Emphasis was given to the discussion on fund management, project implementation, monitoring and reporting, responsibility and accountability, program timeframe and the cancellation of projects and the 2019 programming of projects.
Status of document submission was likewise presented to track the compliance of LGUs to the documents for submission vis-à-vis their timelines. To determine how far the LGUs has gone in the implementation of projects from the year 2014 to 2018, an update on the physical and financial status of locally-funded projects under BuB, BuB-LGSF, PCF and ADM was also reported.
Issues and concerns about the program which mostly pertains to the reversion of fund in case of termination, revision of Program of Works (POW) when there had been two (2) failed biddings and scope of work of the Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) were addressed accordingly during the open forum.
The 2018 AM Program, which covers 1,373 municipalities nationwide, equitably assists the municipal governments in the delivery of basic services to their constituents through providing financial subsidies for the construction of, local access roads, local bridges, potable water supply, evacuation center and DRR-related equipment, small water impounding projects, rain water catchment facilities, sanitation and health facilities and municipal drug rehabilitation facility.
The conduct of the Provincial AM Roll-Out would set in motion the provision of administrative guidance to the program implementers. # By LGOO II Blessing Grace G. Sagun
