BudgIT Liberia, through its Country Lead, Abraham Varney, has called for citizens’ participation in creating a citizen’s center budget. Varney emphasized BudgIT’sapproach for a citizen-centered budget through participatory means, calling on stakeholders and local government actors to join hands with BudgIT.
“The thoughtfulness of the Liberian government to collaborate with CSOs to achieve fiscal transparency and public participation in the budget processes through the Fiscal Transparency Advisory Group will increase revenue as well as state and no-state actors’ oversight on public expenditures to enhance democratic governance and development in Liberia. It’s a vigorous approach that creates tension in projecting proper ways to expend state resources in the midst of competing priorities,” BudgIT’sCountry Lead, Varney, observed.
He stated that informed decision-making, state resources management and prioritization will yield to effective and efficient service delivery at the national and local levels that improves the living standards of the ordinary citizens, and that BudgIT Liberia remains open for collaboration to making this happen.
Varney made the statement on Radio Gbarnga on Friday, March 22, 2024, ahead of a one-day Budget Analysis Town Hall Meeting with civil society actors, local leaders, women organizations and the disabled community of Bong County, which was held later on the same day.
BudgiT Liberia is a civic organization that applies technology to intersect citizens’ engagement with institutional improvement to facilitate societal change.
According to the Country Lead at BudgiT Liberia, Abraham Varney, the meeting was intended to provide knowledge to citizens on budget processes and legal frameworks that guide public finance management in Liberia.
Varney said the gathering was also intended to get citizens’ understanding of the impacts of the budget on the Liberian people and sort out leakages within the revenue generation of the country.
He said now that the FY-2024 National Draft Budget is at the Legislature, it was incumbent upon lawmakers to begin engaging their constituencies on the different allocations within the budget, which he said most lawmakers are yet to do. He said this has prompted his organization to embark on creating an awareness on the budget.
The BudgiT Liberia Country Lead further explained that his entity was also using the medium to get the views, opinions and recommendations of citizens on the budget at the community level to push it through the Fiscal Transparency Advisory Group.
“Now that the 2024 National Draft Budget is at the national level, it is the responsibility of the lawmakers to come back to their people and explain to them what the government plans to do within twelve months, but they are all complacent at the parliament and just looking at what they can benefit; this is what BudgiT Liberia is trying to change—the dynamics—by coming at the community level to get citizens’ views, opinions and recommendations and push it through the Fiscal Transparency Advisory Group,” Varney explained.
The meeting was held on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Gbarnga Youth Center in Gbarnga, Bong County.
Abraham Varney at the same time stated that BudgITLiberia has been nominated and recognized by the Government of Liberia (GOL) to serve on its Fiscal Transparency Advisory Group as part of efforts to include citizens’ participation in the development processes of the national budget of Liberia.
Established in 2022 by the Ministry of Finance, Varney said the FTAG is intended to bring state actors and non-state actors together to provide feedback and recommendations on how the state’s resources can be used. He explained that it is also meant to help improve timeliness and comprehensiveness on the publication of documents that are involved in fiscal procedures to create good governance and improve service delivery at the county’s level.
For their part, participants of the meeting lauded BugdITLiberia for the knowledge acquired, describing it as an eye-opener. They explained that their lawmakers have always played deaf ears to them when it comes to informing them about the national budget and what they stand to benefit from.
With the knowledge acquired, they have promised to hold their leaders accountable for allocations made on their behalf in the budget. They further recommended improvement of the timeliness of the publication and comprehensiveness of key budget documents, among others.
The FY2024 National Draft Budget is in the tone of US$692 million and is before the National Legislature.
