Three of the five cities in the province of Laguna were picked to receive the highly prestigious Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) Award from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The SGLG awards are the highest recognition the DILG gives to local government units, testifying to the compliance by awardees to required transparency in business transactions, sound fiscal management and delivering the needed social services to the people.
Awardees naturally gain trust of the local community and potential investors even as the LGUs take home millions of pesos in grants. This is DILG’s way of giving incentives for the exemplary performance of local government units.
Surprisingly, Sta. Rosa, the “Lion City of the South,” failed to make the list of awardees last year, raising eyebrows of many in the province. Its smaller neighbor cities – San Pedro and Biñan - made the list.
Financial topnotcher
Sta. Rosa is an economic “powerhouse” in the province, meaning it has more than enough income to perform beyond set criteria in the selection to top the list.
It earned its name as Lion City of the south for it is home to seven special economic zones and industrial parks. High-end villages are rising, attracting higher commercial activities.
The city is now pushing to become the center of business process outsourcing (BPO) in the province of Laguna, as evidenced by the opening of a new BPO site at a major mall in this city last April 13. That new BPO site is expected to generate at least 3,000 jobs by the end of the year, according to officials.
This Lion City earns highest among the first three cities in the province after Metro Manila.
It earned P4.99 billion in 2022, according to the Commission on Audit (COA).
The two other smaller cities, San Pedro City and Binan City earned less but the two made it to the SGLG list of top performers.
San Pedro earned P3.27 billion, while Binan earned P3.56 billion.
Score sheet on poverty incidence in 2022 in these three cities: Sta. Rosa 1.29 percent, Binan got 1.69 percent and San Pedro 1.99 percent. Sta. Rosa outperformed its neighbor cities in the area of taking care of the poor in their locales.
Fiscal management
Insiders claim Sta. Rosa failed to make the list because of financial management issues.
The executive summary published by Commission on Audit (COA) for Santa Rosa City in 2022 could probably shed a better light on these issues, as it noted some "deficiencies" in the city's dealings. We are directly quoting the COA report here:
1) The Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) account cast doubt on the existence, reliability, and correctness of the account, and ultimately prevented the conduct of one-time cleansing of PPE required by COA Circular No. 2020-006 dated January 31, 2020.
2) Instances of recording deposit on dates different from actual date of occurrence overstated the Cash in Bank and understated the Cash, Local Treasury, both, by P26.202 million.
3) The submitted Bank Reconciliation Statement to support the recorded Cash in Bank of P2.864 billion included book reconciling items for deposits and debit memos of P4.738 million and P15.486 million, respectively that needs further verification by the City Accountant.
4) Absence of periodic reconciliation between the cash book and the Cash in Bank subsidiary ledgers, being maintained by the City Treasurer and the City Accountant, respectively, resulted to the accumulation of unreconciled amount of P380.524 million, preventing early detection of reconciling items and errors, as well as, adjustments to effect reconciling items, thus, casting doubt on the reliability of the subject records and reliability of Cash in Bank balances reflected thereon.
5) The absence of detailed record to support the RPT and SET Receivables did not facilitate settlement of unreconciled amount of balances between the City Accounting Office (CAO) and City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) of P202.020 million, thus, correctness of year-end balance of RPT Receivables amounting to P401.928 million as of year-end could not be determined.
It is not enough that LGUs bring in the investors that create jobs and pay more taxes. The income growth is important, but the handling of financial matters is important, too.
On judgment day, the mice roar as champions and the lion whimpers “meow.”
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