The province of Lanao del Norte is declared by the Regional Development Council under NEDA Region 10 as this year’s winner in the Search for Outstanding Local Project Monitoring Committees (LPMCs).

Also declared as winners are Gingoog City (city category) and tied for the top spot are Aloran (Misamis Occidental) and Malitbog (Bukidnon) in the municipality category.

All local LPMCs were evaluated on six areas: organization, capability building, reporting on the status of programs and projects, information dissemination, NGO/PO participation in monitoring, and institutional arrangement for the operation of the Regional Project Monitoring and Evaluation System.

“We really don’t expect to receive this award because we were so focused on ensuring that all the projects earmarked for Lanao del Norte be implemented successfully”, PPMC chairman Bal Zamora said.

Recognizing the important role of the local project monitoring committees, the Regional Development Council-10, through the Regional Project Monitoring Committee, instituted the Search for Outstanding LPMC at the province, city and municipal levels where the mayors are presidents of the league of municipalities.  The search is conducted every three years to coincide with the term of the local chief executive.

“We really could not have done it without the unwavering support of Gov. Khalid Dimaporo. With the support he has given us, we are all the more inspired to do our best”, Zamora said.

The primary objective of the search is to motivate the LCEs and local development councils to facilitate project implementation, and heighten the advocacy on the systematic use of monitoring and evaluation information for decision making.

The search was undertaken from November 24, 2009 to January 29, 2010, by members of the RPMC-10 and included field visits to the local government units. The RPMC-10 met en-banc last February 17, 2010 and after deliberation, decided to ncialaward those that scored more than 75% weighted average. The following LGUs were declared winners: Lanao del Norte (Outstanding Provincial Project Monitoring Committee), Misamis Occidental (1^st Runner-Up – Provincial level); Gingoog City (Outstanding City Project Monitoring Committee), Malaybalay (1^st Runner-Up – City level), Oroquieta City (2^nd Runner-Up), Valencia City (3^rd Runner-Up); Aloran and Malitbog (tied as Outstanding Municipal Project Monitoring Committee). VNL-PIO-LDN