Stakeholders Slam Bayelsa Govt For Treating Annual Budget As ‘Secret Documents’
By Amos Odeh
LAGOS OCTOBER 25TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Stakeholders have described the status of Bayelsa State government in the open budget index as “not very nice.”
They passed the verdict during a one-day meeting on the “Framework for Citizens’ Budgeting in Bayelsa State” organised by the Social Development Integrated Centre, popularly called Social Action, at the Bayelsa Non-Governmental Organisations Forum (BANGOF) secretariat in Yenagoa.
The meeting was part of activities under Social Action’s campaign on open budget and other fiscal documents, including citizens’ participation in the budget process.
The participants comprised activists, community and media representatives, among others.
They were unanimous in their observations that Bayelsa was still reportedly treating its annual budget documents and other fiscal documents as ‘secret documents’.
According to the stakeholders, this was contrary to the principles of transparency and accountability which the state government claimed to be operating as a governance policy in the last few years.
They stated that the state government needed to deepen its transparency and accountability policy by making its annual budget documents and other fiscal documents accessible and available.
“The status of Bayelsa State on the open budget index is not very nice. People don’t need to go to relevant state ministries to request for budgets. The point is: anywhere you are, you should surf the web and get the state’s budgets”, Prince Ekpere, Social Action’s Programme Officer, remarked.
He noted that town hall meetings remained a major platform for legislators to engage their constituents and ensure citizens participated in the Bayelsa budget process.
Kuroghobogha Robinson, the chairman of BANGOF, identified lack of political commitment as one of the factors militating against open budget process in Bayelsa.
He said the political class was not willing to drive a participatory and open budget process, adding that the situation had not helped Issues of good governance and transparency in the state.
The stakeholders, however, pointed out that the state government had started “some components of open budget process”, urging it to walk the talk and create a portal where the people could interact with government on its policies and programmes.
They also enjoined citizens to play oversight functions by monitoring development projects executed in their localities, and desist from making frivolous demands on contractors so that they would not deliver poor quality jobs.
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Posted by News Rangers
on Oct 25 2018. Filed under National.
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