Citizens
By Cecilia Ologunagba
Abuja, July 4, 2018 (NAN) A development expert, Dr Otive Igbuzor has advised Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to engage citizens in budget preparation to promote transparency and enhance inclusive growth.
Igbuzor, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, the practice now is to present the budget breakdown to the citizens after the President has signed it.
The executive director said it was necessary for every MDA to have a platform for engagement with the citizens in the budget preparation before the final presentation.
“The Minister of Budget and National Planning will not be able to handle all the questions that citizens will direct to other ministers at the budget presentation.
“He will not be able to answer the questions because most of the questions will be on what is allotted to what and what, why and all of that.
“So, before the budget is presented, every MDA should engage with citizens group and media so that people do not sit in the office and just write any project.
“It will be based on each assessment and engagement with citizens that such budget will be accepted.
“Also, as the ministries are making their own implementation, there should be accountability platform where they engage citizens before the presentation,’’ he said.
The official said that even if ministers would not be present at the budget breakdown event, they would have had their own engagement with citizens before they prepare their budget.
According to him, the ministers should involve the citizens in implementation of the budget and give account of how they have used the money.
Igbuzor, however, expressed optimism that the N9.12 trillion 2018 budget would be implemented based on the assumptions in the budget.
“I think to a large extent, if you look at the current price of oil because 40 something per cent of the budget comes from oil, you will see that the benchmark is realistic but the challenge has always been implementation.
“We hope that since they have recognised the implementation as a challenge, they will be able to put in mechanism to improve the implementation,’’ he said.
Igbuzor also expressed the willingness by the Federal Government to implement the budget in order to have impact on the economy and to improve the living standard of Nigerians.
He said the budget would have impact on the economy depending on the response and ways it would be implemented.
“One of the ways to respond to it is that they will extend it again beyond December, so the challenge is effective implementation and I think the ministers will recognise that as a challenge.
“ I am happy too that citizens are getting more interested because everywhere in the world, if you leave government officials alone there will be no improvement so journalists need to get more interested also.
“If the budget is on the website, we can see it; we need to look at it, we need to track it.
“For example, the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) is bringing a new application `LOCOPO’ where if any project is given to a contractor, it will be on the website.
“ So, all of us as citizens and media need to track the implementation so that there will be delivery of the budget,’’ the executive director said. (NAN)
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Edited by Ese E. Ekama