An Examination of the Budget Process and Revenue Collection of the City Government of Pasig Through the Measure of Transparency and Public Participation

Pasig City has been an example of strong participatory governance and a responsive and transparent local government unit for the last four years. Understanding its dynamics and room for improvements require focusing on how the good governance indicators of transparency and public participation manifest particularly in Pasig City’s budget processing and revenue collection as areas of study in local fiscal administration. Guided by the Input-Process-Output model in policy formulation and evaluation, the study sets to provide recommendations for the city by analyzing descriptive and comparative data through a mixed-method approach from the city economic and Management employees, civil society organizations , and the city’s budget hearings and CSO Academy. Data provides that the city economic and management employees, and CSOs perceive the city government positively in terms of transparency and public participation. No significant difference between the groups on the two indicators display common understanding on the importance of good governance which is observed in the city’s fiscal administration. The city’s CSO academy further enhanced the impact of transparency and public participation. Recommendations from interviews share the common themes of improving tax collection, enhancing the budgeting process, strengthening transparency and public participation, and capacity development. Though, there are differences in the specific strategies and perspectives discussed.