More than ninety-seven percent or P18.98-billion of the P19.4-billion total budget for Assistance to Disadvantaged Municipalities (ADM) program has been released to 1,373 municipal governments across the country this 2017.
The funds are being used for local access roads, water system projects, evacuation facilities and water impounding projects nationwide.
Just on in its first year of conception and implementation, ADM program is lauded for its accomplishments in its aim to contribute to the empowerment of local government units (LGUs) and in making them more responsible and responsive.
“It’s quite a feat for a new program to be on top of its performance and to be on track in its initial year. The ADM scheme of transferring funds to municipal governments equalizes and addresses financial and infrastructure gaps. Nagkakaroon ng dagdag pondo para sa mga proyektong tumutugon sa mga pangangailangan ng ating mga kababayan sa mga munisipalidad,” says Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Catalino S. Cuy on Friday.
For the first batch, a total of P8.16-billion was released in March, while P8.17-billion was released for the second batch in June. The third with an amount of P779.5-million was downloaded in October, while the fourth batch amounting to P886.3-million was released in November. The last batch amounting to P983.9-million is scheduled to be released before the year ends.
Meanwhile, ADM Project Management Office (PMO) reported that the remaining P449.3-million for 36 municipalities will no longer be released due to their non-compliance to the ADM requirements, particularly the DILG Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Public Financial Management and adoption of corresponding improvement measures.
“ADM program makes municipal LGUs more responsible and responsive because they are made accountable in the overall implementation of their ADM-funded projects. An LGU ensures that the design, plans, specifications and construction of projects are in accordance with the national government standards and within the range of costs and project duration of similar projects being implemented by a national government agency in the same locality,” the DILG OIC points out.
He shares that a series of program orientation have been conducted this year to prepare municipal LGUs in their full implementation of ADM projects in their localities.
Cuy says that ADM is in line with national priorities and is in sync with Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 goals such as: ensuring people-centered, clean, and efficient governance; ensuring functional service delivery networks; and strengthening linkage in planning investment programming and budgeting.
In August, DILG announced that ADM is the top bet of the Philippines for the international Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global effort that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
