Saturday, June 07, 2008 Cebu City Gov’t is ‘best’ in fiscal management
THE Cebu City Government was adjudged the best performing local government unit (LGU) in Central Visayas in the area of local fiscal management.
Out of 136 LGUs in the region, Cebu City was the only one that passed the recent annual performance evaluation of the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) with a score of 85 percent.
The passing score was set at 80 percent, BLGF Acting Assistant Regional Director Herminihilda Garsola said.
Also included in the top five are the cities of Mandaue with 84.4 percent, Tagbilaran with 82.28 percent, Dumaguete with 74.21 percent and Talisay with 72.60 percent.
Ration
All provincial, municipal and city governments in the region were evaluated according to their cost-to-collection ratio (10 percent), internal revenue allotment less dependency (20 percent), collection efficiency of the treasurer and assessor (25 percent), average collection efficiency on four major fund sources (25 percent), conduct of public auction (five percent) and submission of reports on operations (15 percent).
In a letter addressed to Mayor Tomas Osmeña, BLGF 7 Regional Director Renee Empaces congratulated the mayor for a remarkable performance that made the City number one.
“In view of your steadfast and sterling leadership, with utmost prudence and discipline in managing the finances of the City Government, Cebu City is actually the only local government unit that will be honored during the assembly,” he said.
Valid
Osmeña said yesterday that he considers the BLGF assessment to be more valid than those conducted by academic award-giving bodies because that of BLGF is reviewed by an association of local government treasurers and assessors.
“It’s not some school outside that pretends they know what they’re doing. I think this is much more valid than some outside assessment. I’m very honored that Cebu City is the best performing among 136 LGUs and I’m sure that includes the 51 towns and cities in Cebu and the Provincial Government,” he told reporters.
Garsola explained that although the provincial and municipal governments were evaluated according to another set of criteria, these are similar to the criteria used for the cities.
The BLGF invited the mayor to receive the award during the 2008 General Assembly and Regional Performance Evaluation and Recognition Conference among local treasurers and assessors on June 18 in Tagbilaran City, Bohol. (LCR)
