PIA Press Release
Thursday, January 19, 2012 Eight more LGUs in Tarlac get Seal of Good HousekeepingTARLAC CITY, Tarlac Jan. 19 (PIA) -- Eight more local government units (LGUs) in Tarlac recently received the Seal of Good Housekeeping (SGH) from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).DILG Regional director Florida Dijan and League of Cities of the Philippines President Oscar Rodriguez personally bestowed the recognition to the mayors of Concepcion, Gerona, La Paz, San Clemente, San Jose, Sta. Ignacia, Victoria and Tarlac City in a ceremony held in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Ria Ramos of DILG-Tarlac explained, “The SGH is conferred to LGUs that have excelled in the areas of planning, budgeting, revenue mobilization, financial management and budget execution, procurement and resource mobilization.” LGU recipients of the said merit have obtained a “no adverse report” from the Commission on Audit, which means that they have complied with all the requirements of the government’s auditing agency. With this feat, all seventeen towns and one city of Tarlac plus its provincial government are SGH recipients. Ramos added, “SGH honorees automatically vie for the Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) wherein chosen LGUs receive P1 million each from the national government which will be utilized for projects supportive to the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals such as eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, reduce child mortality and promote gender equality.” Last year, the PCF grantees in Tarlac were the municipalities of Ramos, Pura, Anao and San Manuel. Apart from being a requirement for the PCF, the SGH is also a criterion in the selection of regional and national Gawad Pamana ng Lahi (GPL) winners. According to Ramos, “GPL is given to LGUs for reason of exemplary performance in Administrative Governance, Social Governance, Economic Governance and Environmental Governance.” Ramos further said, “This yearly award is also an instrument to scale-up the valuing of accountability, transparency and involvement to local administration and development.” Tarlac ended third in the provincial category of the inaugural regional GPL where Bulacan took home the top prize and Nueva Ecija landed second. (WLB/CLJD-PIA 3) | 
