The Municipality of Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat, one of the target LGUs of the EU-funded RESOURCEGov project, has deemed it crucial to review and update its revenue plan/codes to execute efficient revenue generation and to better plan service delivery and other expenditures. It has also regarded as important to enact the Economic Enterprise Code and the Local Investment & Incentive Code (LIIC) to help generate more revenues beyond traditional sources and to provide a broad range of investment opportunities to the municipality.
On January 19-20, 2016, Mahintana Foundation through its RESOURCEGov project conducted the Review of the Revenue Generation Plan cum Finalization of the Municipal Revenue, Economic Enterprise, and Investment & Incentive Codes of LGU Lambayong. The activity was attended by at least 27 participants including Heads of Offices, SB members and staff, CSOs (LPRAT), MLGOO and the project team.
The inputs and presentations resulted to a review of the strategies for potential increase in income, updated appropriate penalties for delinquencies, adjusted collections on fees/charges and identified proper duties & responsibilities of each office/department. The presenters were Hon. Joseph Leo Recinto, SB member, who discussed the provisions stipulated in the draft Revenue Code and the Economic Enterprise Code; Ms. Esmelinda Abalos, SB Secretary, talked about the Local Investment and Incentive Code (LIIC) including guidelines for the formulation of LIIC; and Ms. Esmeralda Mateo, MPDC, presented the 3-year Revenue Generation Plan.
Certainly, the participants actively involved themselves to identify measures to strengthen LGU’s existing collection system. Among the significant agreements were for the LGU to do a dry run first of the Economic Enterprise to determine its profitability, create the Technical Working Group (TWG) to formulate the LIIC and remind Governing authorities including LGU personnel to strictly observe and enforce what is required by the law.
For the closing remarks, Mr. Mars Julian, General Services Officer, quoted,” the 2-day activity has been a good venue for us to discuss and raise our concerns, though, some of the comments may sound too personal but we should take this as an opportunity to improve ourselves and learn from our mistakes to achieve inclusive growth and improve overall performance of the LGU.”
