The Konrad Adenauer Medal of Excellence (KAME)
The Konrad Adenauer Medal of Excellence (KAME) is an award for best managed local governments in the Philippines and it is given every three (3) years or during a term of a local government official in honor of Konrad Adenauer, a one time mayor of Cologne, Germany from 1921 to 1933 and the First Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, who epitomized Christian democracy, social justice and equality amongst individuals and the society at large.
In Resolution No. 63 dated February 6, 1996, the Board of Trustees of the Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF), the major partner of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) in the field of promoting local democratic institutions in the Philippines, formalized the decision to honor the man and the principles of his leadership as Mayor of Cologne, Germany by establishing the Konrad Adenauer Medal of Excellence (KAME) Award.
In March 1996, the Board of Trustees of the Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF) conceptualized and discussed the award system. The KAME award is to be conferred to Local Chief Executives of various local governments whose leadership epitomizes the ideals, which Konrad Adenauer believed in and practiced while in public service. The KAME is awarded to each of the four (4) local government categories representing the province, city, municipality, and barangay. What is principally recognized in the KAME Award are the local governments themselves. The Local Chief Executives who steer the local government bureaucracies to high performance are likewise recognized. The individual winners of the award are conferred with a gold medal and a plaque of recognition while the local governments are also given separate plaques. Eight (8) pre-determined criteria are used in making the selection of winners.
The first KAME award was accorded to four local officials on December 3, 1996 at Hotel Nikko in Makati City. Aside from the criterion, they were all chosen for their constructive leadership, accomplishments and visions as political leaders of their communities.
The second KAME award or KAME II was awarded on December 1, 1999 at the Manila Hotel to four (4) outstanding local officials in the presence of Dr. Josef Thesing, Director-General of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) in Germany and notable Philippine political figures. The awardees were acclaimed for promoting public management reforms and were recognized for providing the conditions that brought about the outstanding accomplishments of the awardees.
KAME III was awarded on December 5, 2003 at the Manila Hotel. The awardees of KAME III, like the previous KAME awardees, were given financial grants to study local governments in Southeast Asia.
The fourth and latest installment of KAME was held on December 6, 2006 in the Champagne Salon at the Manila Hotel. The awardees were chosen due to criteria, which was based on the accountability, responsiveness, management innovation, public-private sector partnership, local government-citizen interaction, decentralized management, networking, and human resource management to their respective areas.
KAME is the only foreign award for local governments in the Philippines which has been duly recognized by the Senate of the Philippines in its Resolution No. 681. The next awarding will be 2009.
Criteria For Selection
The Selection Criteria which governed the selection of awardees of KAME IV are the following:
1. Accountability flows from the concept of stewardship and rests on the consent of the governed. Local Government officials have fixed terms and they may not be returned to office if the voters deem that they have not performed according to their expectations. Appointed officials and employees for their part are only indirectly accountable as they submit to higher officials who are voted into office. Accountability also refers to the imperative to make local government officials responsible for their decisions and actions. It also means adhering to an established set of criteria in measuring performance of local government officials which includes, among others, the presence of mechanisms to evaluate the economic and financial performance of local governments or authorities.
2. Responsiveness is considered as an objective of accountability, wherein leaders and public servants address the needs of the public. It means the ability of local governments to deliver services that are needed by the constituency. Such accountability can be indicated "by a deliberate citizen and customer orientation policy being consistently espoused by the local administration" or by "the presence of mechanisms and procedures for swift recourse on unfair practices and avenues for the community to articulate issues requiring local governments assistance".
3. Management Innovation includes reforms successfully implemented by local governments in various areas of local government administration, e.g. administrative procedures, resource mobilization, political reforms, economic sustainability, environmental preservation, community participation, etc.
4. Public – Private Sector Partnership suggests an active joint working arrangement between the local government and the private sector in the programs of local government. It is a visible cooperation between local government and the private sector in improving local governance. This also implies the installation of a level playing field for the private sector to operate, i.e. the consistent application of laws, regulations, policies, access to information, etc. It also includes the participation of the private sector for instance through contracts in the delivery of government services.
5. Local – Government - Citizen Interaction indicates open communication between the government, non-government organizations and the community as a whole. This also suggests effective relationship between and among politicians and the local government officials and staff resulting in a synergy as reflected in the outcomes of their programs.
6. Decentralized Management concerns the ability of the local management to delineate and delegate responsibilities to various responsibility centers and ensure accurate reporting and monitoring of delegated responsibilities. Delegation shall aim to improve efficiency, continuously improve acceptance of te services provided by the local government, encourage the local government staff to take responsibility for their actions and generate job satisfaction among employees.
7. Networking refers to the ability of the local governments to forge co-operative relationships with other local and other entities to build institutional capacities. The need for networking among local governments has been the common manifestation in several interlocal, regional and international conferences enjoining cooperation.
Networking enables local government units to pool their resources and exchange information on best practices in responding to common concerns in the delivery of basic services and in undertaking collaborative projects designed to promote social and economic development.
8. Human Resource Management suggests the sustained implementation of a program to recruit, train, motivate and develop a local workforce to become more efficient, dedicated and effective members of the public service.
Training, which is one aspect of human resource management, increases the capabilities of officials and employees to better perorm their duties and responsibilities in their organizations. Likewise, training is an intervention that updates the participants' knowledge and skills to keep pace with the rapid pace in the development of science and technology. Training in one sense is a strategy to cope with obsolescence.
