Mt. Province gets excellent ARTA rating, Tadian town highest on municipal scores

By Gina Dizon  

BONTOC, Mountain Province  -- The provincial local government unit of  Mountain Province registered a rating of  91.71 in the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) rating of the Department of Interior Local Government (DILG)  following regional validation.  

Mountain Province Gov. Leonard Mayaen announced this during the flag ceremony of provincial and government line agency employees December 20 this year.

In the same development, Tadian local government unit led by Mayor Anthony Wooden got the highest ARTA rating among the ten municipality LGUs of the province.

The ARTA report card rated by the DILG  with the participation of  civil society organization showed Mountain Province LGU rating high on  compliance with  ARTA provisions including  that on  citizens anti fixer’s  campaign, no hidden costs, public assistance and complaints desk;  frontline  service, service quality, physical working conditions and overall satisfaction.

Said rating was attested by Local Government Officer Aileen Salvador,  provincial director Rosario Dumelod of  DILG- Ifugao and  DILG regional director John Castaneda. Regional validation is done with one provincial DILG rating another further attested by the regional DILG head.  

In pursuance of President Benigno Aquino’s  program on Daan na Matuwid, the ARTA rating requires  seal of good housekeeping (SGH).

A project of DILG, the SGH recognizes LGUs with good performance in internal housekeeping in areas of local legislation, development planning, resource generation, resource allocation and utilization, customer service, human resource management and valuing fundamental of good governance.

The ARTA report card rates 90 to 100 percent as excellent, 80-89 as good, 70-79 as acceptable, and 0-69 as fail.

The Anti-Red Tape Act or Republic Act No. 9485 aims to promote accountability, establish effective practices and improve efficiency in the delivery of government service to the public by reducing bureaucratic red tape and preventing graft and corruption.  ARTA promotes transparency in each agency with the manner of public transactions and applies to all government agencies.

Meantime, Tadian LGU got the  highest of 96.80 percent  ARTA rating among  the ten municipal LGUS of  Mountain Province followed by Sagada  LGU with an  ARTA rating  of 96.24, Sabangan LGU with  94.39,  Bontoc LGU with 91.70,  Bauko LGU with 91.46, Barlig LGU  with 90.93, Natonin LGU with 89.81, Paracelis LGU with 86.61 and Besao LGU with 79.47.