The Social Development Center, also known as Social Action, a Civil Society Organization in Port Harcourt has solicited for media partnership in the realization of the organization’s pursuit in State governments’ open budgeting and citizens’ participation/ inclusiveness to enhance good governance in all States in Niger Delta.
Narrating the organization’s achievement so far, Mr Peter Mazi, the organization’s program officer said “Social Action has been leading in the advocacy amongst other thematic areas on open and inclusive governance with a vision to entrench a regime of transparent and accountable governance and a citizen-centred public budgeting system.
According to him, “For about a decade now, Social Action has been working with like-minded partners and organizations in the Niger Delta to bring this vision to reality.
“In 2015, Social Action partnered with USAID in the strengthening of Advocacy and Civic Engagement (SACE) project.
“This partnership shaped out the strategy for engagement and resulted in the formation of the open budget cluster, with an enhanced capacity to constructively engage with state governments in the Niger Delta in a move towards an open budget regime.
“The ultimate goal is an inclusive, transparent and accountable government capable of prudent management of public funds”.
Continuing, Mr Peter Mazi said, ” Budgeting system stands on a tripod. The first is for government to adopt inclusive public expenditures. This implies that budgets and other fiscal documents are proactively made available to the citizens at no extra cost to them.
“The second is for the government to create space for citizens’ participation in the budget process. And the third is that institutions vested with the responsibility to carry out oversight functions do so without any form of interference “.
According to Mr Mazi, ” Akwa Ibom State took a giant stride in the direction of budget availability.
“The Akwa Ibom state house of assembly has also passed the fiscal responsibility bill which still awaits the assent of the state governor.
“On citizens’ participation, the state has a record of organising town hall meetings for the purpose of harvesting citizens’ input to the budget but close watches have faulted the process to be another appendage of political grandstanding.
“These gatherings have turned out not to achieve the set goals of unfettered citizens’ participation in the budget process.
“Bayelsa State has achieved budget availability but sadly, not accessible. While it is possible to obtain the budget document on request from the state ministry of budget and economic planning with the payment a stipulated amount, we have canvassed the proactive availability of the document as a measure of openness and therefore, urge the state to publish the budget in her official website which is in fact a more cost effective and efficient way to transmit the document to the general public.
“Delta State has the 2016, 2017 and 2018 budgets online in addition to other fiscal documents. This has been made possible and sustained through advocacy and engagements with the governments of the state.
“The state also passed the fiscal responsibility law to ensure probity and accountability in the fiscal management of the state.
“On citizens participation, the government has appointed Communities Liaison Officers, who serve as the medium of information exchange between the state and the citizens on issues of political, social and economic sphere.
Edo State has also done well in the publication of fiscal documents on her official website. The Fiscal Responsibility has passed second reading in the state house of assembly. The state has however, not fared well in the area of inclusiveness on governance process.
Rivers State after a prolonged engagement, the budget documents have surfaced online. The 2015 budget was pulled down from the state website at the inception of the current administration of Governor Nyesom Wike and since then, none of the succeeding years’ budgets was made proactively available to the public until August 2018.
“Currently, the 2016 and 2017 budgets are available on http://sanction.org/budgets/, while the 2018 version can be found at http://yourbudgit.com/data/state/.
“Despite this window available to access the documents, we maintain that one of the criteria for measuring openness is the availability of the budget document on the official website of the state government.
“We, therefore, urge the state government to upload the appropriation bill on the state website as a matter of duty it owes the citizens.
“While some have gone ahead of others in budget availability and accessibility, and have achieved varied degrees of citizens participation, they have all fared poorly with regards to oversight functions of designated functions.
We implore the media to partner with organized community groups and the Civil Society Organizations to educate the general public on the benefits of participation in the process of governance while also imploring the government to create a framework for unfettered access for citizens to participate in the process”.
