MANILA, Philippines — Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Thursday blamed the capital city’s failure to pass standards for Good Financial Housekeeping (GFH) on the administration of Joseph “Erap” Estrada, citing information from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“This was already expected. The DILG told us this is due to the past administration’s failure to comply with full disclosure of financial documents in 2018 and first quarter of 2019,” he said in a statement.
Moreno said he has already convened the local finance committee “to work and fix the past administration’s mess.”
“This is an opportunity for us to do better, that we will not tolerate this kind of dismal performance. It’s not happening under my watch,” he said. “We promise to do better under our administration.”
Manila was the only city in Metro Manila that failed to pass the GFH criteria of the DILG. The list of passers was released on February 14.
In the nationwide scale, only 184 out of 1,706 assessed LGUs failed to meet the GFH standards.
According to DILG, the criteria for passing GFH are the following: most recent available Commission on Audit Opinion Unqualified or Qualified for 2017 or 2018; and compliance with the Full Disclosure Policy (FDP), which involves the posting of financial documents in three conspicuous places and in the FDP portal for all quarters of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019.
DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the central office of the department would rather not comment on the matter at this time.
INQUIRER.net is contacting the camp of Estrada for comment.