LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The fourth year of the provincial search for most statistically – developed local government unit (LGU) initiated by the provincial government is on.
City and municipal LGUs in Pangasinan are vying for the most coveted award which is in recognition to LGUs for their strategies and programs to utilize statistics in local governance.
Governor Amado ‘Pogi’ I. Espino, III will lead the awarding of the top three winners in two categories of the contest: (category A: city/1st and 2nd class municipality; and category B: 3rd to 5th class municipality) during the provincial culminating activity of the 27th National Statistics Month celebration to be held on October 28 at the Sison Auditorium, here.
Statistician III Lolita Quiros bared in an interview that self-rating evaluation forms will be released next week to all LGUs in the province for them to assess their level of compliance to the criteria set for the award.
Top 10 finalists will be drawn from the list of LGUs that accomplished the self rating evaluation which will then be visited by an evaluation team for final judging.
Criteria in judging a statistically developed LGU include: presence of office/unit responsible for data generation, processing and data banking dedicated for statistics (10%); statistical corner organization (10%); personnel support (15%); presence of computer unit exclusive for statistics (10%); availability of updated city/municipal socio-economic profile and other comprehensive sectoral data for the last three years (25%); system used to generate/process data (15%); and statistical information access/dissemination and utilization (15%).
Bonus points (5%) shall be given to entries having innovation approaches and programs and data gathering strategies.
Quiros said that that provincial task force responsible for the said search has been reorganized, following an executive order from the governor dated September 7 which created addendum to the task force designating additional member who shall be responsible for the said search.
Member department and agencies of the provincial task force include: Provincial Planning and Development Office (chairman), Provincial Employment and Services Office (co-chairman), Provincial Statistics Agency (vice chairman), Provincial Budget Office, Provincial Information Office, Provincial Agriculture Office, Management Information Services Office, Provincial Health Office, Department of the Interior and Local Government Provincial Office, Pangasinan Federation of Non-Government Organizations and League of Local Planning and Development Coordinators of the Philippines Inc. – Pangasinan Chapter.
The said search was launched in 2013 under the administration of former governor and now 5th district Representative Amado T. Espino, Jr.
By Dexter A. See