Widening Citizens’ Access toLGUs’ Public Documents

DILG Project ProposalDIALOG Trust Fund

12 August 2011

PHILIPPINES DEVELOPMENT FORUMWorking Group on Decentralization

and Local Government

BackgroundDILG’s outcomes: empowered and accountable

LGUs, transparent & effective local governance, and an engaged citizenry.

In support of the FD policy, MC 2011-08, stipulated modalities by which the LGUs’ 12 public documents & transactions shall be ‘posted’: (1) in the website; (2) in conspicuous places within LG-owned public buildings, and (3) in print media of community or general circulation.

BackgroundDILG’s MC 2010-83 reiterated the requirement

for the posting by LGUs of 12 documents: Annual Budget Report; Quarterly Statement of Cash Flows; Statement of Receipts and Expenditures; Quarterly Report of Special Education Fund Utilization; 20% Component of the IRA Utilization; Annual GAD Accomplishment Report; Annual Procurement Plan or Procurement List; Items to Bid; Bid Results on Civil Works, and Goods and Services; and, Abstract of Bids as Calculated.

Background LGUs reportedly found compliance to all three

modalities difficult. Partial compliance figures (excl. provinces) as of July 26 are:

DILG (central & regional) has limited technical capacity (bandwidth & systems development). It has recommended the development of a separate Internet solution for the documents.

Modality City Municipality All three 1 8 Two including web posting 5 85 One (Posting in conspicuous places within public buildings)

11 205

Two excluding web posting 0 4

Project Development Objective

• To widen access (thus reducing search costs) & increase awareness & understanding of CSOs & the general public to LGU reports (budget, procurement, transfers, trust funds, & other LGU transactions).

• This contributes to the outcome of a strengthened demand from citizens by their use of accountability mechanisms.

Project Description

Technical assistance to DILG in meeting its immediate need of uploading to the Internet the 12 documents;

Explanatory guides that define & describe the purposes of the documents, & how they can be used, will be available on the

site.

Preliminary Cost Estimates

Total cost of PhP 500,000 (includes developers, writer, subscription costs, S&M; excludes hardware)

Alignment with DIALOG TF Objectives

This project is consistent with the development objectives of the DIALOG Trust Fund.

It has built on learnings and findings from other donor-funded projects.