DILG central office cites Lamitan LGU for efficient fund handing

COTABATO CITY - For its efficient handling of funds, Lamitan City got a 2022 Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping (SGFH) citation from the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Officials of the DILG-Region 9 in Zamboanga City told reporters Wednesday that the Lamitan City local government unit is among dozens that got through, without any issue, the SGFH evaluation, a requisite for the release of such special citation.

Radio reports here Wednesday said the office of the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, who is local government minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, had also received a notice that a number of LGUs in the Bangsamoro provinces, one of which is Lamitan City, had been awarded with a 2022 SGFH by the office of Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos, Jr.

The DILG central office released only last Monday the lists of the LGUs it granted with a 2022 SGFH citation, which is premised on the efficient and transparent handling of funds by recipient municipal, city and provincial governments.

“For this, credit has to go to all employees of our city government. It is them who are in the forefront of ensuring the wise and good utilization of our LGU funds,” Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay said in an official statement Wednesday.

The grant of the SGFH citation to deserving LGU is a yearly activity of the central office of DILG.

The Lamitan City LGU had also received from DILG’s central office five Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awards in the past six years.

The DILG central office grants SGLG annually to LGUs with good public service programs and extensive environmental-protection, security and community development efforts.

The DILG central office does not grant SGLG citation to LGUs if managing local executives are involved in different criminal activities, or have issues with the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit.