A Civil Society Organisation, Development and Integrity Intervention Goals Foundation, said it has recorded some progress in making the citizens input count in Ebonyi State’s budget through its various engagement programmes.
Its Executive Director, Oliver Aja Chima, saidd this during its second bi-annual high level constituency-legislative interface.
The interface was held in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
The project supported by the USAID-funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness Activity was centreed on key constituency issues, service delivery and public policies.
The event brought together some local government and state legislators on a roundtable with citizens to deliberate on public policy matters, especially as it concerns the 2023 State Budget.
Part of issues discussed included how to make citizens demands and input count in the 2023 budget process.
Speaking, Chima said the objective of the meeting was to draw legislators/stakeholders attention on the need to prioritise citizens’ inputs in the 2023 budget, especially around three key sectors of Health, Education as well as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
He added that the meeting was also to create opportunity for citizens to present their prioritised needs to the legislators and to advocate legislative policy intervention towards attracting the political will of the executives on identified issues.
Chima said: “The essence of this programme is to ensure that there is legislative influence in the 2023 budget proposal.
“It is called constituency legislative interface: bringing the people and the legislators together to interface around issues of public service delivery and policies that affect the people.
“Our target is to see a responsive and responsible legislature that see the people’s needs as priority starting from the local government to State Legislative Councils.”
Interacting further with newsmen, the Executive Director expressed satisfaction with the successes so far recorded in their USAID-S2S supported projects in promoting citizens’ voices in governance issues in the State.
China added: “Before now, the gap between the citizens and the people representing them was so wide, and that’s what we are working to bridge.
“We are making progress.
“As it is today in Ebonyi State, we have recorded some success stories.
“In the Ministry of Finance today, if any MDA doesn’t capture the citizens input in their budget, they will be turned back during the bilateral discussion.
“Now, through our Citizens’ Charter of Demand project, we have succeeded in inputting some items into the budget from the MDAs running up to N300 million.
“We are making sure to ensure that if the budget is approved, we can proudly say that we have succeeded in capturing citizens input in the 2023 budget.”
Chima attributed the successes to the ready resource and logistics support from USAID State2State.
Stakeholders at the meeting drawn from the relevant government Ministries Departments and Agencies, including Finance, Education, Health and Environment, local government and State Legislative arms and other partner CSOs applauded the development, calling for sustained action.
One of the participants and the Deputy Clerk on Legal Drafting, Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Cecilia Nwankwegu, promised that the outcome of the interface would be taken to the appropriate quarters.
Nwankwegu also assured that the relevant Civil Society Organisations in the State would be invited during public hearing on the budget by the House of Assembly.
Highlight of the event was the ceremonial handover of the Community Charter of Demand documents to the legislators.