City allocates P3M for brgy execs’ training

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Council has authorized the city budget officer to charge P3 million under the city-sponsored activities account for the orientation training of barangay officials about governance, administration and planning for development.

This was after all the members of the city council approved the resolution sponsored by Association of Barangay Council-Cebu City President and  Kasambagan Barangay Captain Franklyn Ong last September 4.

Ong’s move was pursuant to the memorandum circular the Department of the Interior and Local Government has issued enjoining the barangay officials to participate in the training towards Grassroots Renewal and Empowerment for Accountable and Transparent (GREAT) barangay program.

Barangay captains, councilors, secretaries, treasurers and the Sangguniang Kabataan presidents elected from 2018 to 2020 will have to undergo this training.

In an interview, Ong told The FREEMAN that there will be 880 participants from the 80 barangays in the city.

In the approved resolution, the GREAT barangay program aims to “provide knowledge, skills and attitudes of barangay officials in performing their mandated tasks and responsibilities.”

The objective of the training is to identify behavioral and ethical requirements of an effective and efficient barangay official, explain mechanism in the delivery of basic services and facilities to their constituents.

During the three–day training, discussion of important roles of the barangay as partner of the national government in the implementation of programs will be highlighted.

The training, which includes lectures, discussions, multimedia presentations, interactive demonstrations of learning sessions and workshops, also tackles the importance of performance management system in enhancing governance in the barangay.

The training is expected to be conducted this month.

The P3 million training budget includes P2,685,000 for the food and venue, P200,000 for the honorarium of resource speakers from DILG, City Secretariat, and Cebu City representative, P27,000 for the procurement of training supplies such as Identification sling, photo paper, certificate holder, and P88,000 for the seminar kit, which is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) containing the soft copy of modules.

Ong had earlier sought the approval of Mayor Tomas Osmeña detailing the orientation training for newly elected barangay officials.

“In this connection, I respectfully request the Honorable Mayor to approve the charging of the cost against City-Sponsored Activities,” portion of the letter reads dated August 23, 2018.

After the mayor had approved the training, City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia issued a certification on the availability of funds under the City-Sponsored Activities.

In fact, she detailed that the said account has P10 million at present.

Like Gumia, Acting City Treasurer Veronica Morelos has also certified that the city government can charge it to the mentioned account. (FREEMAN)