Civil society urged to pursue transparency in local governance

By MYLES COLASITO
September 28, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Civil society is very much welcome to participate in the promotion of transparency, accountability, and performance in local governance.

This was the message of Undersecretary for Local Government Austere A. Panadero during the one-day Partnership Workshop held at the Regional Office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Tacloban City last September 26, 2011.

Speaking before representatives of non-government organizations, cooperatives, heads of parish social action committees in Eastern Visayas, and an equal number of DILG regional and field officers, Usec. Panadero stressed on the importance of civil society in local governance.

He posed the challenge for the Department and civil society organizations (CSOs) to operationalize the Memorandum of Agreement entered into by DILG Secretary Jesse M. Robredo and CSO partners. Particularly he said that resources must be mobilized and capacities must be developed to maximize their participation in local governance.

He cited the framework for CSO participation in local governance. CSOs could variously serve as Gabay (Guide); Kaagapay (Partner); Tulay (Bridge); and Bantay (Watchdog) in LGU operations, Usec. Panadero said.

Citing that about 90% of LGUs nationwide are complying with the Full Disclosure Policy, he threw the question on how the available data can best be understood, and which could result in improvements in LGUs. He suggested that universities and colleges be tapped in helping analyze the contents of the documents posted by LGUs under the Full Disclosure Policy, in order to make a database wherein people could compare LGU financial practices.

According to Director Francisco C. Jose, the workshop is an offshoot of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed between DILG and the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN) and Task Force Participatory Local Governance (TF-PLG).

It aims to benchmark the contributions of the partnerships in the promotion of a responsible, accountable and transparent local governance.  Likewise, it seeks to identify factors that either reinforce or hinder the maturation of the partnerships; and determine the more robust areas of partnerships or engagements that have to be scaled up and to translate these into a mutual action plan.

Prior to the conduct of workshops, participants were oriented on the FDP and SGH, and were presented some best practices on DILG-CSO and CSO-LGU engagements.  The workshop centered on the state of local participatory governance, on mutual objectives and possible actions.  The day ended with CSO and DILG participants signing an expression of their commitment towards promoting transparency, accountability, responsiveness and performance in local governance.