Monrovia — The government of Liberia in collaboration with the National Civil Society Council of Liberia has launched the National Budget Consultation group to enable citizens understand the effect of the National Budget when it comes to development.
The event that was held at the Ministry of Finance and Development brought several individuals from government entities along with civil society actors.
Speaking at the event, the Chairman person of the Civil Society Council Loretta Pope Kai said they are happy for the coming into being of the long strive by civil society actors to have broader citizens' participation in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of this very important national document is gaining what she terms as foothold.
According to Madam Kai, public participation is very cardinal to the budget process adding that it makes government more accountable and responsive to its citizens.
"It also provides an opportunity for citizens to make inputs in identifying their priorities as well as improve their perception of the performance of the government," she said.
The Civil Society Chairperson added: "Citizens play a critical role in advocating and helping to make public institutions more transparent, accountable and effective, as well as contributing innovative solutions to complex development challenges."
The recognition that citizens have both rights and responsibility to contribute to decision making processes that affect their wellbeing is fundamental to public financial management, she said.
For Madam Kai, despite the concept may appear relatively new in Liberia, some countries on the African continent are making frantic efforts to ensuring that they get on par with other countries around the world.
"The need for Civil Society and by extension citizens' participation in the budgeting process of a country's National Budget is very cardinal and essential," she said.
Madam Kai added: "That is why we as Civil Society have been and continued to be vociferous in our calls to expand the space and/or engagement around the national budgeting process in Liberia to include Civil Society."
"With the launch today of the National Budget Consultation, civil society view this as a welcome renewed effort by government to harness public participation in such important national process."
Madam Kai further said Civil Society Organizations can play an important role in public budgeting. That is, CSOs can help improve budget policies by providing the much needed information on public needs and priorities because of their close proximity to the citizens of any country.
"CSOs can also ensure accountability by holding the Executive accountable for how it uses public resources. All of these are possible if and when the requisite information is available to CSO and the citizens at large, which can be done through such engagements and interactions," she said.
Also speaking, the Deputy Minister for Development and Planning at the Ministry of Finance and Madam Tanneh Brunson said the objective of the project is to ensure that fiscal policies and resource allocation decisions are informed by the issues and aspirations of ordinary citizens through the civil society including the private sector.
She says, "An advisory broad comprised of government and civil society actors have been established and launched." Madam Brunson added that these activities over the next few weeks are part of its work plan.
Actors in this group are compassionate about what they do, and I trust that through them the aims and objectives of promoting fiscal transparency will be achieved, Madam Brunson said.
"The government of Liberia through the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Hon. Samuel Tweah is on transparency and accountability in the public arena. Thus, on his behalf, I again assure you of the government's reassurance on its commitment to continuously support opportunities for citizens to contribute to decision-making processes around the budget issues which affect their livelihood," she said.
The government of Liberia in collaboration with the National Civil Society Council of Liberia has launched the National Budget Consultation group to enable citizens to understand the effect of the National Budget when it comes to development.
The event that was held at the Ministry of Finance and Development brought several individuals from government entities along with civil society actors.
Speaking at the event, the Chairman person of the Civil Society Council Loretta Pope Kai said they are happy for the coming into being of the long strive by civil society actors to have broader citizens' participation in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of this very important national document is gaining what she terms as a foothold.
According to Madam Kai, public participation is very cardinal to the budget process adding that it makes the government more accountable and responsive to its citizens.
"It also provides an opportunity for citizens to make inputs in identifying their priorities as well as improve their perception of the performance of the government," she said.
The Civil Society Chairperson added: "Citizens play a critical role in advocating and helping to make public institutions more transparent, accountable and effective, as well as contributing innovative solutions to complex development challenges."
The recognition that citizens have both rights and responsibility to contribute to decision making processes that affect their wellbeing is fundamental to public financial management, she said.
For Madam Kai, despite the concept may appear relatively new in Liberia, some countries on the African continent are making frantic efforts to ensure that they get on par with other countries around the world.
"The need for Civil Society and by extension citizens' participation in the budgeting process of a country's National Budget is very cardinal and essential," she said.
Madam Kai added: "That is why we as Civil Society have been and continue to be vociferous in our calls to expand the space and/or engagement around the national budgeting process in Liberia to include Civil Society."
"With the launch today of the National Budget Consultation, civil society views this as a welcome renewed effort by the government to harness public participation in such an important national process."
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Madam Kai further said Civil Society Organizations can play an important role in public budgeting. That is, CSOs can help improve budget policies by providing the much needed information on public needs and priorities because of their close proximity to the citizens of any country.
"CSOs can also ensure accountability by holding the Executive accountable for how it uses public resources. All of these are possible if and when the requisite information is available to CSO and the citizens at large, which can be done through such engagements and interactions," she said.
Also speaking, the Deputy Minister for Development and Planning at the Ministry of Finance and Madam Tanneh Brunson said the objective of the project is to ensure that fiscal policies and resource allocation decisions are informed by the issues and aspirations of ordinary citizens through the civil society including the private sector.
She says, "An advisory board composed of government and civil society actors has been established and launched." Madam Brunson added that these activities over the next few weeks are part of its work plan.
Actors in this group are compassionate about what they do, and I trust that through them the aims and objectives of promoting fiscal transparency will be achieved, Madam Brunson said.
"The government of Liberia through the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Hon. Samuel Tweah is on transparency and accountability in the public arena. Thus, on his behalf, I again assure you of the government's reassurance on its commitment to continuously support opportunities for citizens to contribute to decision-making processes around the budget issues which affect their livelihood," she said.
