Robredo confirms P30 billion IRA cut for LGUs next year

By Dexter A. See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays nationwide will encounter around five percent reduction in their respective Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) next year, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said here Tuesday.

This, following the reported P30 billion reduction in the collected revenues three years ago which will be the basis for the budgeting by 2012.

Robredo said for this reason, local governments must be aggressive finding local sources of more revenues to offset the expected cut

Robredo presided over the 6th regional road show of the Aquino government’s advocacy on full disclosure for local governments to empower local officials to be transparent in their financial transactions to help rid the bureaucracy of corruption.

According to the DILG chief, P15 billion was the estimated reduction in the IRA of local governments next year based on the 2008 revenue collections of the government.

He added P10 billion will be attributed to the implementation of the third phase of the salary standardization for government workers while P5 billion will be eaten up by the increase in the IRA of the 16 new cities as upheld by the Supreme Court.

The DILG chief has met with top officials of the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other international and local funding institutions to make good governance one of basic requirements in obtaining loans and grants.

The DILG has reportedly coordinated with the new Commission on Audit leadership in order to release reports of local government units early which will be utilized in judging the performance of local governments nationwide.

Because of the tremendous pressure from the national government on compliance of local governments to the seal of good housekeeping, the seven provinces, one chartered city, one component city and the seventy five municipalities committed to comply with the requirements of good housekeeping to make sure that government expenditures will be transparent for public scrutiny.