ILOILO City – To ensure a smooth transition of leadership on June 30 and avoid disruption of public services, local government units (LGU) – particularly those that would have new governors, mayors and congressmen – must form transition teams, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 6.
Actually, according to Engineer Ariel Iglesia, officer-in-charge of DILG-6, transition teams should have been created as early as March 30 at the start of the campaign period for the midterm elections for the early start also of the inventory of records, equipment and other properties.
“Pagpumasok ang new set ng local officials, maghahanap ‘yan siempre kung saan na ang mga properties ng LGU. ‘Yan ang iniiwasan natin,” said Iglesia.
The DILG earlier issued Memorandum Circular No. 2019-39 which required the creation of Local Governance Transition Teams to be chaired by the local chief executive with the vice chair to be elected from among the members by simple majority vote.
The tasks of the transition team include the conduct of an inventory of LGU properties, securing of all official documents and records of LGU transactions, and briefing on the key challenges for the incoming set of officials for a seamless leadership and management transition.
The members of the team are department heads of the LGU and a DILG representative such as DILG Provincial Director in case of provincial government, DILG City Director in case of city government, or DILG Municipal Local Government Operations Officer in case of municipal government.
There should also be one representative from a civil society organization or people’s organization.
DILG secretary Eduardo Año previously said the inventory to be conducted by the transition teams must include “immovable properties such as land, buildings, infrastructure facilities and its improvements, and machineries made immovable, as well as movable properties such as vehicles, office equipment, furniture, fixtures, and office supply stocks.”
Also to be inventoried are “all official documents or records of the LGU’s official transactions not limited to government assessment report and Commission on Audit report.”
The DILG chief also said the Department through the Local Government Academy is ready to train newly-elected and reelected local officials through its Newly-Elected Officials Program to enable them to effectively discharge their duties and responsibilities and define their development roadmaps.
“We assure you of the DILG’s guidance and assistance to help the new local officials who have been given a fresh mandate by the people become good local government managers,” he said./PN
