City Hall working to ‘improve’ service to public

IN serving the people of Cagayan de Oro, Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando Uy said his administration in City Hall is committed to finding ways to improve their services and willing to learn from experts and stakeholders in doing so.

“In my administration, I look forward to a bureaucracy where every (department or office) functions according to its mandate—be it in promoting economic growth and enabling a transparent administering of the bureaucracy in expanding opportunities and influence, all in improving the general welfare of the people,” Mayor Uy said in his welcome message during Monday’s ‘Seal of Good Local Governance’ program.

The program held at the City Tourism Hall was spearheaded by the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG). In his weekly message on behalf of Mayor Klarex during Monday morning’s flag-raising program, City Administrator Roy Hilario Raagas said a team of evaluators conducted a review of City Hall’s performance in the past year based on the 10-point criteria of the ‘Seal of Good Local Governance.’

These criteria consist of financial administration and sustainability, disaster preparedness, social protection and sensitivity, health compliance and responsiveness, sustainable education, business friendliness and competitiveness, tourism, heritage development, culture and arts, safety, peace and order, environmental management, and youth development.

“The purpose of this (DILG’s Seal of Good Local Governance) program is not solely for local governments to compete with each other to secure an award but to improve our services (to our respective constituencies) as part of our (commitment to continually improve) our country’s governance system—from the grassroots barangay level all the way up to the national government,” Raagas said in Visayan.

Signed into law by former president Rodrigo Duterte on April 12, 2019, Republic Act 112921 institutionalizing the Seal of Good Local Governance for local governments seeks to grant recognition to local government performance and covers the country’s 145 city governments, 81 provincial governments, and 1,489 municipal governments.

And in his message, Mayor Uy said City Hall under his administration should strive to maintain and even improve the quality of public service to Kagay-anons while being mindful of whatever shortcomings and failures it may have committed to them.

“We should honor those who have done exemplary service but if we had any shortcomings, we should find ways to rectify them in accordance with the law,” Uy said in Visayan.

The mayor also asked ‘experts in local governance’ and stakeholders to give City Hall inputs and ‘mentoring’ on how to sustain and improve their service to the city.

“The capacity of our bureaucracy is high but I believe that we still have a lot to improve. And with your coaching and mentoring, we’ll continue on improving (in serving and improving the lives of our people),” Uy said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)