SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union, Aug 23 (PIA) -- The Center of International Private Enterprise (CIPE) emphasized that strengthening public governance is crucial in strengthening participatory democracy in the Philippines.

Based on this, nongovernmental organization Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA) is committed to improving governance practices among local governments, civil society groups and public agencies beginning 2000.

Hinged on the Harvard Business’ Balanced Scorecard technology, ISA uses the Performance Governance System (PGS) as tool for transformation.

The PGS is a performance management framework that builds on potentials. It allows public sector institutions to create future strategies that will allow them to achieve and sustain their goals.

In 2005, eight Philippine cities became the first local governments to implement and adopt the system.

One of these cities is San Fernando, which commissioned the services of ISA in installing the PGS in 2005 to advance the human and economic security of constituents and ensure sustainable and responsive governance.

Meanwhile, positive impacts are clear for cities that are successfully implementing the PGS as over 40 local governments were working with
ISA already, along with more than a dozen national public agencies and civil society groups by late 2009.

According to the CIPE report, cities are now generating significantly more local revenue, enabling them to reduce their financial dependence on the central government and make additional investments in their communities.

PGS ADOPTION AS GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK

In adopting the PGS, government officials and a broad-based community consultative group design specific public policy goals and an action plan to accomplish them.

“Requiring formal adoption by a city’s chief executive and legislative body, PGS scorecard becomes a locally owned initiative. Progress towards these locally designed objectives is charted on a scorecard using metrics customized for each community or organization,” John Morell of CIPE said.

The accreditation process for PGS, also called PGS pathway, has four stages and it usually takes four to six years to complete. These four stages are initiation, compliance, proficiency and institutionalization.

For the first step or initiation, it requires a city or organization to set up its community consultative group and corresponding city planning team and for these bodies to jointly form a long term strategic plan or scorecard.

A city or town reaches then compliance when ISA determines that its bureaucratic department’s activities and budget allocations are aligned with the long term goals laid out in the PGS scorecard.

For the third one, a city must be recognized by ISA to be performing in relation to its specked targets to have an office in charge of strategy execution and to use the scorecard as the framework for its public reporting.

The final stage of the PGS process requires a city to demonstrate dramatic achievement in one or more of the areas specified in its PGS scorecard and to demonstrate that this higher level performance is sustainable.

“The PGS pathway is unique for each organization and each stage involves capacity building programs that are progressively advance and more technical in content. When an organization completes the final stage, it becomes institutionalized or ISA certified,” the CIPE report said.

The city government of San Fernando, as an example, has completed the first two stages. It intends to solicit the services of ISA to fully install the system, pursuant to Resolution No. 10-165 series of 2010.

It aims be recognized in the “Hall of Fame” by 2015.

John Morrell of CIPE said the success give reason to hope that reform can take hold in the Philippines. (ANL/MHH-PIA 1 La Union with reports from www.cipe.org/)

original source: www.pia.gov.ph