Akwa Ibom CSOs Boycott 2023 Budget Public Hearing over Years of Disregard of Inputs
By Ekemini Simon
Over 90 civil society organisations in Akwa Ibom State have boycotted the public hearing on the 2023 budget held yesterday, Wednesday, November 16, by the State Assembly.
The Akwa Ibom State Civil Society Forum in a letter signed by the chairman of the Forum, Mr. Harry Udoh and made available to TheMail Newspaper said the boycott stemmed from what they described as great discontent over the continued subtle disregard and exclusion of the needs and priorities of citizens in the budget implementation, and sometimes in planning and formulation processes, including the disregard of inputs made during budget hearings.
They forum also known as Guild of Community Development Advocates in Akwa Ibom State (AKGCODA explained that they have noticed that in the last seven years, despite increase in opportunities for CSO participation in the budget process, the quality and outcomes of such participation has amounted to using them to tick the box of development partner expectations and achieving publicity mileage by the executive and the legislature.
” Every successive year, our inputs and contributions on what should and should not be in the budget are only received and then studiously ignored, no matter how germane the points we make. It would seem that civil society participation has become just to ‘fulfill all righteousness’.
” While other participants are given ample time to speak during the Public Hearings, this is not always the case with CSOs. Despite the value we bring to the table, it would seem that the officials only listen impatiently to what we have to say and promptly discard our contributions afterwards. Our proposals are hardly ever given any consideration.
” This ploy by the Government of the day to religiously “tick the box” of citizen participation has become a recurring decimal as citizen-recommended projects and needs captured in budgets get zero allocations and when they do eventually get allocations in subsequent years, they are characterised by the sheer lack of releases to implement such citizens input.”
The forum expressed displeasure over poor capital releases to key service delivery sectors – Education, Health and WASH explaining that the midyear review of implementation of the 2022 budget shows very low releases to the sectors – Education 2%; Health 1% and WASH 0%.
The forum insisted that it will no longer participate in deliberations at further public hearings until a noticeable improvement and commitment is made to ensure that the inputs collated through all channels of inclusions, submitted and presented at public hearings get the budgetary attention they deserve.
Part of the letter read ” Against the foregoing, the Guild of Community Development Advocates in Akwa Ibom State demand the following: Public hearings that pragmatically accommodates the inputs of civil society, leading to the production of an Appropriation bill and Budget performance that is responsive to the needs and priorities of citizens as a democratic and constitutional right.
” Immediate commitment to commence the process of ensuring inclusion, allocation, and prompt release of the funds for implementation of citizens nominated projects in the Appropriation bill with plans for budget releases when the bill is approved or reasons provided for releases not made.
“Inputs made by citizens at all levels of public consultation should be properly documented and taken seriously going forward. And, if not, reasons should be communicated why our submissions are not considered.
“Implementation of Citizens-generated projects included in the budgets and the publishing of the same in the citizen budget as directly linked to citizens’ needs as well as other effective measures to include the view of citizens and their organizations in the budget review process.”
The form demanded for sincere inclusion of CSOs in budget preparation and implementation demonstrated by verifiable criteria and data that explains how citizens-nominated projects that get budget allocation and releases are selected and included as a feedback mechanism in the Citizens Accountability Report (CAR).
They demanded that MDAs mechanism for the selection of projects should be clearly spelt out, investigated, and leveraged for increasing the selection of citizens’ projects.
The body however noted that they will continually play an intermediary role in bringing people’s voices and opinions to bear on public policies.