The Effectiveness of the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS) in Improving Governance in the Municipality of San Rafael

The United Nations Development Program said that one of the reasons why a nation fails in achieving its millennium development goals is poor governance. If governance is such an important factor in the development of a country, then it is important to understand the factors leading to poor government performance, measure it, and improve it. This descriptive study is about the effectiveness of the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS), a monitoring and evaluation, in pointing out weak areas of a local government in order to improve it. In this study, the author chose the Municipality of San Rafael in Bulacan as she is a resident of the town. The study’s focus is on the results of the LGPMS evaluation in the municipality for the period 2010-2012. The study revealed that the LGPMS is an effective tool in pointing out the weak areas of performance of San Rafael, thereby paving the way for improvement in delivering better services to the municipality’s constituents. For the year 2010-2012, the state of local governance performance of the Municipality of San Rafael steadily increased. Because of LGPMS’s ability to point out weak governance areas, San Rafael was able to focus on that area and implement policies and programs to improve its services. LGPMS is therefore an effective performance measurement and management tool in improving the quality of lives of San Rafaeleños.

Keywords – local governance, performance management, LGU performance management