Sueno: Assistance
to Disadvantaged Municipalities ‘different’ from BuB
By DILG
November 19, 2016
QUEZON CITY –
Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno today said that
the DILG’s new Assistance to Disadvantaged Municipalities (ADM)
program is ‘different’ from the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB) program of
the previous administration.
Sueno said ADM is quite
distinct in terms of its objectives, type of projects, eligibility for
funding, projects identification scheme, and budget allocation per
local government unit (LGU).
He said that unlike BuB
whose main objective is citizen engagement and participation, ADM is
designed to assist LGUs in strengthening their ability to deliver
basic services.
“The ADM is anchored on the
need to somehow provide fiscal space to municipalities, to allow them
not to become too dependent on their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA)
and to help LGUs utilize their local resources for other programs and
projects,” he said.
Sueno said that under the
new program, the local chief executive has to submit a project list
culled out from any of the existing plans of the municipality, unlike
in the BuB wherein civil society organizations are included in project
identification.
“The main trajectory of BuB
then was people participation. In ADM, we are more concerned in
helping the towns address the essential needs of their constituents,”
he said.
According to him, the
projects eligible for ADM assistance include the five basic
infrastructure that are most needed in municipalities – access roads,
potable water, evacuation centers, sanitation facilities, and small
water impounding.
The DILG Secretary also said
that the ADM, similar to the BuB, also imposes a governance
requirement wherein municipal governments have to meet good governance
standards prior to the release of funds to them. These standards
include passing the good financial housekeeping component of the Seal
of Good Local Governance (SGLG) and completion of assessment of its
Public Financial Management System.
He said that although not
all of the 1,373 out of the total 1,489 municipalities in the country
covered under the program may be considered ‘disadvantaged’, the ADM
looks at the magnitude of poverty in the area and not just at the
baseline income of the municipalities.
The DILG Chief also stressed
that there is no duplication or repetition of projects under the ADM
program with other national government agencies, noting that the P19.4
billion budget being proposed for ADM is for projects that are within
the scope of implementation of the DILG.