Seal of Good Housekeeping for Cotabato City

Cotabato City Government receives Seal of Good Housekeeping

Cotabato City now reaps its rewards and receives the Seal of Good Housekeeping for its full commitment to the principles of performance, accountability, transparency, and participation.

Ever since the release of the DILG Memorandum Circular 2012-78 titled Scaled-Up Seal of Good Housekeeping, the local government, headed by City Mayor Japal J. Guiani, Jr., has been working hard to comply with all the requirements needed in order to receive this prestigious award.

Along with the SGH came the amount of 50 Million Pesos from the National Government and will be used to finance several development projects in the city. Priority projects will include the improvement of the delivery of services concerned with the better health and wellbeing of the city’s constituents and the education of the youth sector.

Mayor Guiani also added that he will be looking into the plight of the Cotabateños residing beside river banks and bring them to safer grounds.

Aside from the 50 Million Peso reward, the city was also a recipient of almost 30 Million Pesos for its Performance Challenge Fund—also one of the rewards for receiving the Seal of Good Housekeeping. All of these will be used to fund several development projects identified by the City Government.

  “We feel happy for this prestigious award and we would like to thank our City Government employees for their support. This award is dedicated to the people of Cotabato City”, Mayor Guiani said.

Out of 100 cities competing for the award, Cotabato City was chosen to receive the SGH Bronze.

( DILG City Director  Guinodin Abdillah hands in the Award to Mayor Jojo J. Guiani, Jr. )

As explained in the DILG Memorandum Circular 2012-78, there are three award levels of the Seal—SGH Bronze, SGH Silver, and SGH Gold.

The SGH-Bronze Award is given to Local Governments who passed the criteria in Accountable Governance and Transparent Governance.

These are reflected by the documents like the Annual Budget for the General Fund of Cotabato City, Summary of Expenditures, Statement of Cash Flows, Statement of Debt Services, Assets, etc., being posted in conspicuous places like bulletin boards and other materials that are visible to the public and being placed in the local government’s website—all of which were fulfilled by the LGU.

“There are levels of compliance required to be posted and published in the local media but we are not able to do so due to the voluminous pages of all the documents”, DILG City Operations Office Director Guianodin Abdilah said.

Abdilah further adds that the awarding doesn’t stop here. The City Government is still aiming for the SGH Silver and SGH Gold awards.

A number of evaluators will be coming to the city in the next weeks to see to it that the Full Disclosure Policy is still observed by the local government. After the evaluation, they will determine if the city has surpassed the criteria for the SGH Silver Award. 

Furthermore, Mayor Guiani said the SGH has both been a challenge and a motivating factor for his administration. Despite all the issues confronting the City Government regarding peace and order and other matters, he is still putting primacy to good governance and transparency.

“This is very challenging. One needs to have a broad perspective on things so our goals for the city will be attained especially when it comes to good governance and at the same time be able to solve problems regarding the peace and order situation in our area”, Guiani adds.