A civil society and stakeholders’ parley, reviewing the budgeting process of the states in the South-East, has resolved to ensure that state budgets reflect the needs of the communities.
The forum held that budgeting must adopt the bottom to top approach if it genuinely intends to accommodate the priority needs of the rural communities that constitute the state.
The reflection meeting which was held at the weekend under the auspices of the Voice to the People (V2P) project had in attendance stakeholders in the budget process drawn from across the five states of the South-East.
In her opening remark, the Executive Director of Hope Givers Initiative, Mrs. Onyeka Udegbunam, said the meeting was designed to further interrogate and evaluate how far stakeholders have gone in getting community needs into the state budgets using the Community Charter of Demand (CCD) as key
instrument.
“We should also be able to ascertain how many of the community needs inserted into the budget has been funded. It calls for vigilance and diligence on the part of all stakeholders, as reflecting the needs of communities in the state budget represents one of the best good governance models in any democratic society,” she said.
Udegbunam noted that an open budget system will encourage communities to make inputs into the budget and present their charter of demands.
“And with a participatory budget system, it is easier to track components of the budgets to The Point of execution,” she added.
Stakeholders were unanimous on the need to institutionalise through legislation, the budget model that accommodates and reflects the needs of communities in the state budget, as presented by the communities in their Charter of Demand.
The forum also agreed to reach out to other sister states, especially Imo State, which are yet to embrace the budgeting system that accommodates the Community Charter of Demands, reflecting the needs of the communities in the state budget.
Earlier, a Nollywood actor from Imo State, Benson Okereke, noted that Imo was still practicing the ministerial budget system. According to his submission, Community Charter of Demand (CCD) has no place in the state’s budgeting process.
“What we have in Imo is a situation where politicians merely impose undesireable projects on the communities who are not given any voice or representation in the budget process,” he
said.
He however expressed the hope that with the new administration in Imo, the state will be better disposed to embrace and adopt the CCD framework and duly reflect the needs of the communities on the state budget.
