In an epoch making event, Adamawa State government has incorporated Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in budgeting process in a move to produce citizens’ oriented budget.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2state) has provided grant to Adamawa State to ensure good governance in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), basic primary and healthcare sectors to ensure efficient and effective delivery of services.
The State2state also seeks to entrench the citizens’ budget by upholding citizens’ engagement which will provide the people a seamless opportunity to provide inputs, engage the government and ensure release of funds for the execution of projects, ensure blockage of loopholes and widening the scope of coverage of budgets so that more communities will benefit from the process.
During a four day intensive brainstorming session for the preparation of the 2022 citizens’ budget at the state planning commission, from 19 – 22 January, 2022, CSOs in conjunction with government officials for the first time work together to produce citizens’ budget.
The process involved populating the citizens’ budget template and transfer of data from Excel document to word document.
In her remark, chairman of Adamawa State planning commission, Dr. Mary Paninga commended the stakeholders for their commitment and dedication towards ensuring the entrenchment of all encompassing budget in the state.
She called on participants especially the CSOs not to shy away from asking relevant questions and raising observations to strengthen the process, noting that the process cannot be fully owned by the people unless they are deeply involved in it.
She pledged unalloyed commitment towards ensuring the success of the citizens’ budgeting process for the overall good of the state.
Also commenting, the permanent secretary, Adamawa State planning commission, Usman Mapeo said Adamawa has made history as the event marked the first time CSOs are involved in in the preparation of budget even though the process of citizens budget started since 2015.
He said the process will enhance efficiency and transparency of government operations, adding that with the process, all sections and people of the state will be carried along in the budgeting process.
Mapeo thanked the state government and state2state for opening the process adding that it will yield more dividends of democracy to the populace.
Also speaking, Mr. Machil Maxwell, Adamawa state2state team lead, said, the event marked the series of support his organisation is giving to the state government to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the three areas of interest namely basic education, WASH, and primary healthcare.
He said for the government to provide effective services to the people, there must be proper coordination and planning through efficient budgeting process.
Maxwell also noted that the event marked the first time CSOs are incorporated into the budgeting process urging them to reciprocate the gesture by putting to use what they learnt during the 4 day intensive program.
Maxwell who debunked some myths around budget, said, unlike the popular perception that the budgeted money is already handy, the money is usually obtained in the course of the fiscal year.
He called on the CSOs to work diligently to identify gaps and loopholes for the overall strengthening of the process.
Also speaking, Director of Treasury, office of Accountant General, Adamawa State, Mustapha Isa who took time to dissect the 2022 budget, christened budget of sustainable hope, noted that the budget has a total value of N163 billion.
He said out of the amount, N98 billion has been earmarked as recurrent expenditure while N65 billion will go into capital projects and N16 billion has been set aside as loans repayment.
He urged the CSOs as representatives of the people to ensure that communities in the state make inputs into the budget and also to ensure the inputs are captured by relevant ministries and departments as well as to ensure the release of funds for the execution of such projects for the citizens’ budget to be impactful.
Also speaking, Director Taxes, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Salihu Sabana, said, the citizens budget will close the gap between the supply and the demand sides as it will open a new vista of interaction between the two sides.
He said the process is geared towards inclusive governance in which all segments of the society are carried along.
Sabana said for impact of the citizens budget, the state is divided into three zones for consultations and inputs of the citizenry.
He urged participants to pass the knowledge learnt to the citizens of the state for optimal impact.
Also in his presentation, Alladon Kenan, a staff of Adamawa State Bureau of Statistics, said there are two processes involved in citizens budget which include citizen engagement and citizen budget itself.
He noted that the citizen engagement provides avenue where citizens make input into the budget while citizens budget involves breakdown of the budget in such a way that a layman on the street can understand the content of the budget.
He noted that the process involved how government source funding to run it’s activities and how it also expended the resources for the benefit of all and sundry.
He also called on the CSOs to make optimal use of the opportunity so that communities can benefit from the process.
On their part, the CSOs pledged to ensure that people really owned the process.
Speaking on behalf of the CSOs, Nasir Mohammed Adamu, declared the unflinching commitment of the CSOs towards the success of the citizens’ budget noting that they will leave no stone unturned to ensure the overall success of the exercise.
