Altura, G. A. (2016). Enhancing plan-budget link at the grassroots: Piloting in the Municipality of Alimodian, Province of Iloilo (Unpublished master's thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management Development Program Middle Managers Class Batch 8 Thesis (MMC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

Participatory bottom-up development process continues to be a big challenge for the country's policy makers and project implementers. Various policies and programs like the Bottom-Up Budgeting were implemented resulting to mixed reactions from stakeholders. Some people are exasperated due to the tedious and costly process of creating changes emanating from the grassroots. Still others persist and remain hopeful that there is no best alternative than consulting and educating people in the barangays. Section 384 of the Local Government Code of 1991 (LGC) describe that barangay as "... the primary planning and implementing unit of government policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities in the community, and as a forum wherein the collective views of the people may be expressed, crystallized and considered..." As an oversight agency of the development planning cycle, the NEDA is mandated to provide technical assistance to local government units, among others, to ensure that plan implementation achieves the goals of national development. NEDA endeavors to promote greater participation in the development process as a guiding principle. Thus, this ReP is an attempt to embolden the NEDA by focusing on the weak plan-budget link between the barangay and municipality of city. Strengthening the plan-budget link through participatory bottom-up process would lead to a more transparent, efficient, and effective delivery of public services. The ReP was designed to be piloted in the scholar's hometown Alimodian a third class municipality in the Province of Iloilo in order to achieve harmonization of plans, programs, projects and budgets of the barangays and the municipality. In a period of three months the ReP delivered four (4) major outputs, namely: 1) Issuance of Executive Order by the Mayor of Alimodian specifying the annual budget and AIP preparation process to sustain the planning-budgeting system introduced to the LGU through the ReP; 2) Conduct of briefings and workshops on plan-budget link strengthening resulting to the drafting of CY 2016 AIP and budget of each of 51 barangays which were integrated and harmonized at the municipal level; 3) Guidebook on Strengthening Plan-Budget Link at the Grassroots written in local dialect of Hiligaynon or Ilonggo language to serve as major reference by key officials of the barangay and municipality beyond the ReP; and 4) Compendium of Funding Sources of LGUs designed for identifying external sources of funds and/or technical assistance for prioirty projects, so that more development interventions can be realized in the LGU. After a smooth and successful delivery of the ReP outputs, the scholar intends to conduct a project proposal preparation training for key LGU personnel in Alimodian in order to access external funding for vital projects. Both the barangay and municipality have limited Local Development Fund or 20% of IRA plus own-generated income for allocation to various public services. The LGUs expresses willingness to fund the training involving chosen barangay functionaries. More than the four ReP tangible outputs, the scholar believes that he was able to influence the mindset of barangay and municipal officials about the importance linking budgets to the plan through the Annual Investment Program. The identification of projects in the AIP was also understood by them as a critical process in order to attain efficiency in resource allocation as well as effectiveness in addressing local poverty. The ReP entailed a total cost around P385,000 excluding the monetary values of time and effort of people who were directly involved including the scholar. The cost of these personal services is estimated to reach 50 percent of the total. The ReP has an acceptable cost-efficiency ration with 420 local functionalities directly engaged by the scholar or around P1,375 per day per beneficiary. This amount is within the range of P1,200 to P1,500 per day charged by government agencies for each participant of a live-out training or seminar. Finally, the ReP has met the excellence requirements of the DAP-PMDP. The AIP and budget must be subjected to the BDC approval and general assembly consultation prior to adoption. This allows every Juan and Juana an opportunity voice out reactions on projects proposed for the barangay. The Guidebook written in Hiligaynon also makes the ReP citizen-centric. Strengthening the budget link at the grassroots is attuned to the mandate of NEDA, hence the pis highly relevant. It is also collaborative because various government agencies (DILG, DBM, NEDA, DOF-BLGF, and municipal sector staffs) at the local level including NGOs were involved in the ReP implementation. The ReP is innovative due to simplified conceptual frameworks used plus the production of the Compendium and Guidebook for use even beyond the ReP. The gains would be sustained with the Executive Order issued by the mayor for onward application. Once the system is sustained more projects can be identified, programmed, funded, and implemented in the area to benefit the people within and radiate to those outside Alimodian. Perhaps, the challenges of participatory bottom-up development process are harder under a unitary government set up wherein all policy making emanates from a singular center. Bringing the center closer to the ground facilitate bottom-up development realization. This is possible through a federal system wherein a central government diffuses decision making to state or local governments. Thus, the smallest unit of governance - the barangays would be closer to a regional government with own resources for local development priorities.