BudgIT, a civic tech transparency organisation working to keep governments transparent and accountable, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ebonyi State Government under its Open Budget Partnership project.
The initiative which was taken on Wednesday was to kick-start a partnership with the state to improve its level of transparency and accountability in public finance.
The success of the OpenKaduna initiative, which started in 2016, with support from BudgIT has propelled some states to consider exploring the benefits of sub-national transparency and accountability.
BudgIT is supporting state governments nationwide to break the age-long opacity that has denied citizens of access to quality living.
According to a statement issued on the partnership, Ebonyi State Government has shown a willingness to improve the principles of transparency as well as establish the culture of accountability within the 13 local government areas of the state.
BudgIT describes the state’s effort to join the Open Government Partnership is also a good move in the direction for public sector reforms and efficient service delivery.
The organization is therefore committed to supporting the Ebonyi State Government through this process through engagement with key government officials to discuss best practices in making budgets readily available and quickly developed in line with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
With the involvement of the state government’ technical team, BudgIT will design an Open State portal for the State government which will serve as a repository for the pre-budget statements, executive budget proposals, enacted budgets, audit reports, implementation reports, financial statements and other public documents.
Ultimately, BudgIT will assist the Ebonyi state government in developing a simplified version of the citizens budget when the annual budget document is released. This document will be available on the state’s Open Budget portal, BudgIT’s website and disseminated across every channel for a structured participatory mechanism designed to capture views of the citizens throughout each budget cycle.
Commenting during the signing of the MoU, BudgIT’s Principal Lead, Gabriel Okeowo, noted that “open budget system is the win-win course for both the government and the citizens, as it projects the state’ positively for investment and development support opportunities, while citizens will enjoy improved service delivery through public participation and constant engagement with the government.”
He therefore charged other state governments to subscribe also to the Open Budget System initiative as it had the potential of both local and foreign investment channels for economic growth, development and sustenance.
