IMO ASSEMBLY, COMMUNITY LEADERS & NGO AGREE ON PARTICIPATORY BUDGET
Imo State House of Assembly says it will take steps to ensure citizens participation in the appropriation of budget for the 2020 fiscal year.
The Chairman House Committee on Budget and Appropriation, Chief Uche Ogbuagu, gave the assurance in a forum organized by a nongovernmental organization promoting good governance in the south east.
The lawmaker noted that agencies of government responsible for preparing budget of the state must engage stakeholders in communities to ensure that only projects that met the yearnings of the people were captured in the budget.
Chief Ogbuagu called on the people to insist on good governance by holding those in positions of authority accountable.
“Any budget of the state at this period of my being in office must be people oriented. Time has gone when people will sit back in the office and capture all they feel the people need,” Chief Ogbuagu stated.
The Executive Director of a nongovernmental organization, “Hope Givers Initiative,” Mrs. Onyeka Udegbunam said the programme was organized to sensitize stakeholders to the need to carry out needs assessment during budget preparation.
According to Mrs. Udegbunam, allowing communities to identify projects to be executed in their areas would encourage them to own and protect such facilities.
According to Mrs. Udegbunam, “this is getting the buy-in of the House of Assembly, the ministry and the communities themselves, who are going to produce this charter of demand with which, to engage government to ensure that community needs are in the budget.”
Mrs. Udegbunam urged community leaders to always identify their needs and make them available to both their representatives in the parliament and other relevant agencies of government during budget preparation to support development efforts.
Community leaders, who were drawn from more than sixty communities in the state, later resolved to support the government, especially in the areas of project identification and execution.
CHINAZO ILECHUKWU