Mountain Province reaps nat’l performance award

By Angel Baybay

BONTOK, Mountain Province -- The provincial government was selected as one of  ten local government units in the country  to be recognized by the Department of Finance.

With the recognition is a financial incentive contract worth more than four million pesos which will be utilized for capital outlay and capability building purposes.

Gov. Leonard Mayaen signed the contract recently with the Department of Finance (DOF) in a ceremony at the

Manila Hotel.

This DOF initiative, the Performance Based Incentive Policy, aims to improve performance of local government units by linking the incentive to the achievement of a set of governance conditions and progressive performance-based targets.

“We are elated that our efforts to improve our performance in overall governance is gaining recognition from concerned government agencies,” Mayaen told Manila Standard, adding that the awards that the provincial government has received will serve as an inspiration for local officials and employees to strive hard in delivering to the people appropriate services and better infrastructure projects.

For its part, the provincial government shall provide an equity amounting to ten percent of the financial grant provided by the Department of Finance.

The financial incentive will be released by DOF upon submission of the following:  an approved Sangguniang Panlalawigan Appropriation Ordinance where the LGU will use the amount; bank certification on opening the grant trust account; and, upon deposit by the LGU of its equity.

It would be recalled that the provincial government was a recipient of the Seal of Good Governance from the Department of Interior and Local Government and in fact was ranked sixth best performing LGU in the country for 2011. The financial package of the award however is yet to be received by the provincial treasury.

Mayaen attributed the latest feat to the continued cooperation of the officials and the provincial work force in attaining their mission of serving their constituents. “As this is an indication that we are on the right track, let this not be a reason for us to be complacent. Instead this should give us more reason be more responsive to the needs of our people,” Mayaen commented.

According to him, the province will earmark the monetary component of the awards to high impact development projects in the province so that numerous individuals will benefit from such projects that would be implemented.

“We want our constituents to share their thoughts on how to utilize the monetary award that we were able to garner for being the top six performing province in our country so we will continue consulting them before finalizing on what are the important projects to be funded by such funds,” Mayaen stressed, claiming that the provincial government is on the process of accomplishing the documentary requirements to facilitate the immediate release of the case award for being a top performing province in the country. --