By Aisha Mohammed
Members of Civil Society Organizations ,CSOs, and Donor Partners in Adamawa State have charged government at all levels on transparency and accountability with donated funds for citizens projects in other to attract more donors.
They revealed this in an interview with Radio Nigeria,Fombina News at a 2024 Budget Consultative meeting with CSOs and Donor Partners organized by State2State in Yola-Adamawa State.
Chairman, Adamawa Group of Good Governance, Babagari Baraya and Godwin Agiya of Catholic Relief Services says the consultative meeting is a step in the right direction, adding that coming up with timely budget will go a long way in improving good governance.
He charged government at all levels on transparency and accountability with donors funds to attract more funding from donors.
On his part, Secretary House Standing Committee, Finance, Appropriation and Budget, Adamawa State House of Assembly, Clarkson Gajere said the support from donor partners and CSOs have gone a long way in improving activities of government in the State and expressed optimism that the budget technical committee will come up with a more enhanced citizens-oriented 2024 budget to improve lives of all citizens in the State.
Earlier in an opening remark, while commending the efforts of the CSOs and implementing partners for always demanding transparency and accountability in activities of government, Commissioner Budget and Economic Planning, Anthony Emmanuel said effective governance requires active participation of all stakeholders and pledged to foster collaboration with relevant stakeholders to meet the needs of its citizens in the 2024 budget.
In an address of welcome, State2State team lead, Maryam Shehu-Dikko says the 2024 Budget Consultative meeting with CSOs and Donor Partners was to provide an opportunity for the donors and implementing partners to engage with government and community leaders to emphasize areas that require interventions, based on their experiences and lessons learned in various sectors.
One of the reforms State2State ,a USAID funded project supported Adamawa State budget process is the citizens inclusive budget achieved through citizens’ engagement and public budget consultations which provided opportunities for citizens, CSOs, persons with disabilities, PWDs, and other groups to actively participate in submitting their demands and community-nominated projects to government during the state and Local Government annual budget processes.
