A coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Edo State on Friday, tasked the Consultative Forum on Transparency Initiative of National Budget Portal on periodic review of its portal if finally created to enable citizens know how the nation’s budget is spent.
They gave the task at a one day stakeholders interactive session with the Consultative Forum on Transparency Initiative of National Budget Portal held with the Civil Society Organizations in Benin City.
The event was themed: ‘Coordination and Implementation of Open Budget and Fiscal Transparency Commitment: Citizens Engagement Forum in Budget Implementation.’
The interactive session was aimed at giving citizens of the state the opportunity to make their own contributions as regards to what they should expect in the proposed portal.
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Speaking at the interactive session, Comrade Itietie Omojevwe of the Edo Civil Society Organizations (EDOCSO), said with the constant review of their portal, it will enable citizens of the state to know and monitor progress of an awarded project, how much was budgeted, released to contractors, who bided for the contract and to what extent has the contract being executed.
He said the consequences of not reviewing the portal are grievous because citizens cannot monitor progress and thereby erroneously accusing a contractor of abandoning his job whereas the said contractor has long completed his job.
Itietie said with constant update of the portal, it would save citizens those shortfalls.
The Interim Chairman of EDOCSO, Bishop Osadolor Ochei, said the importance of creating a portal by the government cannot be overemphasized because it serves as a warehouse of information and that the citizens of the state can easily log into it and source for what ever information they seek about the government.
He said with the Freedom of Information bill that has since been signed into law, had availed citizens the right to ask questions and source for what ever government information they want.
While commending the organizers for the initiative, he said learning is a continuous thing just as he urged the civil rights groups in the state to key into the project with the view of being able to hold their government accountable and ask questions about how their yearly budget is being spent by the government they voted into power.
Earlier, the coordinator, Consultative Forum on Transparency Initiative of National Budget Portal, Mr. Bassey Emmanuel, said the portal is going to be a website where citizens can have easy assess to all government’s budgets and allocations
He also said the portal is not in existence yet, but it is still in the offing adding that, ARZIKI BRAND NIG.LTD, a consortium of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning is the one driving the process on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning.
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Bassey said the consultative forum is to harness expected features and expectations for the proposed National Budget Portal (NBP).
He added that the interactive session has become so imperative as it will give the citizens and the right groups the opportunity to state what they would want to see in the portal as regards the monitoring and implementation of the nation’s yearly budget.