BAGUIO CITY – The Department of the Interior and Local Government Cordillera (DILG) will use the Quality Assessment Tool (QAT) to ensure good quality and responsiveness of Devolution Transition Plans (DTPs) of local government units (LGUs).
DILG Cordillera Officer-in-Charge Regional Director Araceli San Jose, co-chairperson of the Cordillera Committee on Devolution (ComDev), explained that the DTP Quality Assessment is the first phase of the DTP Analytics and serves as a monitoring and evaluation activity based on the 2019 Full Devolution Roadmap; thus, QAT will serve as an internal-level assessment process of the quality and compliance of DTPs based on prescribed guidelines.
“It is critical to develop quality DTPs because these will serve as roadmaps of LGUs to ensure strategic, systematic, and coherent actions toward their full assumption of devolved functions and services beginning this year, 2022,” she said.
She explained that assessors from each assessment level (provincial, highly urbanized city, municipalities, and barangay levels) will conduct a rapid assessment of LGU DTPs based on three parameters.
Parameter 1 (Form Completeness) refers to the accuracy of forms submitted in accordance with DBM-DILG Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2021-1, as reflected in the DILG DTP Repository. Parameter 2 (Process and Alignment) refers to the integration of DTPs across LGUs as well as the legitimization of DTPs by their respective Sanggunians, while Parameter 3 (Coherence and Completeness) assesses the consistency of the LGU DTP’s functions, services, facilities, and capacity development agenda.
The presence or absence of the required indicators in each of the assessment parameters will be used to determine whether the LGU DTP is fully compliant, partially compliant, or non-compliant with the guidelines established.
The results of the LGU DTP Quality Assessment will be submitted to the DILG and will be used to design subsequent activities and references of regional line agencies, civil society organizations, learning resource institutions, and other stakeholders in providing technical assistance to LGUs in improving their DTPs.
