Incumbent local chief executives have been given until April 7 to form their respective Local Governance Transition Team (LGTT) to ensure a smooth turnover of responsibilities to their prospective successors ahead of the May polls.

In a Laging Handa briefing on Monday, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said under the agency’s Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 2022-029, LGTTs must ensure the safekeeping of records, documents, and assets during the election period and guarantee the smooth local governance transition of the new officials on June 30, 2022.

“Based on the memorandum circular we issued, all local governments throughout the Philippines-provincial or municipality-must form a local governance transition team led by a local chief executive, of all department heads, a representative from the DILG, your local council secretary, and a representative from a civil society organization or people’s organization,” Densing said.

He said LGTTs must conduct an inventory of LGU properties including immovable properties such as land, buildings, infrastructure facilities, and their improvements, and pieces of machinery made immovable as well as movable properties such as vehicles, office equipment, furniture, fixtures, and office supply stocks.

The transition team must also gather, secure, and preserve all official documents and/or records of LGU official transactions; and, turnover accountabilities using the prescribed forms, in case of a new set of incoming elected officials, and update the list of accountabilities, in case of re-elected officials.

An LGTT must likewise organize a turnover ceremony for the incoming local officials, to include a briefing on the governance assessment report and key challenges, on June 30, and ensure the accomplishment of the elective local official personal data sheet by the incoming officials to be submitted not later than July 11 to their Human Resources Management Office, Office of the Sanggunian (Municipal/City Council), and to the DILG Field Office.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said all LGU assets, records, and documents, among others, must be turned over transparently and efficiently to a new set of elected local officials “for the seamless continuance of ongoing programs for the people.”

“Public service must not be hampered amid a possible transition of leadership in the LGUs. We remind our local chief executives (LCEs) that as early as now, they must form LGTTs to guarantee the continuity of public service and ensure that all assets are well accounted for upon the transition,” Año said.

Among the official documents the LGTTs must secure are the 2021 Governance Assessment Report, contracts and loans agreement, Comprehensive Development Plan; 2022 Annual Investment Program; Comprehensive Land Use Plan; Public Service Continuity Plan; LGU’s Citizens Charter; and, various full disclosure policy documents.

“Along with the other LGU documents, the LGTTs are expected to ensure that the all-important LGU Devolution Transition Plan, in line with the implementation of the Mandanas-Garcia Supreme Court ruling and Executive Order No. 138, will be forwarded to the new set of local officials,” Año said. (PNA)