Ebonyi legislators and other stakeholders have been advised on the need to prioritise citizens’ inputs in the 2023 budget especially on health, education and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
State and local government stakeholders received the advice during a Bi-Annual Constituency- Legislative Interface on Key Constituency issues, service delivery and public policies.
The programme was organised by Development and Integrity Intervention Goal (DIG) with support from the USAID – funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State).
According to the Executive Director DIG Chief Ajah Oliver-Chima, the meeting was organised to bring the legislatures and the people together to interface on issues around public service delivery and policies that affects them and ensure that there is legislative influence in the 2023 Budget.
He added that meeting with stakeholders has recorded some progress in making the citizens’ input count in the State’s budget through its various engagement programmes.
He said, “The essence of this program is to ensure that there is a 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 sees the people’s needs as a priority starting from the local government to State Legislative Councils.”
“Before now, the gap between the citizens and the people representing them was so wide, and that’s what we are working to bridge and we are making progress.
“As it is today in Ebonyi State, we have recorded some success stories.
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“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 Three Hundred Million Naira.
“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.”
He then charged the stakeholders to create opportunities for citizens to present their prioritized needs to legislature and also advocate for legislative intervention both in policy and attracting political wlof the Executive on the issues identified.
Also, Dr Emma Abah urged the legislatures to ensure intervene and make sure that the local government chairmen have the budget for 2024. He also enjoined the community to protect all projects executed in their area.
The meeting was attended by leaders of council areas, principal officers of EBHA in budget preparation, the Ministry of Finance, Community leaders, Traditional Rulers, Civil Society Organizations, Media and others.
A highlight of the meeting was the handing over copies of the summarised CCD to new LGA officials and legislative officials present.
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