Budget Advocacy

THE 2009 budget has elements of a pro-poor budget, but too far from being a social democratic budget.
Ghanaians have, therefore, been cautioned that any permutations of policy that threaten the core of society would land the country into irreversible and irreparable damage as had been witnessed in other countries.
The budget, therefore, needs to be re-established to balance the economic and social in its political orientation and tax allocation.
This was contained in a press statement prepared by the Centre for Budget Advocacy (CBA) on the 2009 policy and budget statement and read by the Executive Director of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Mr Bishop Akolgo, in Accra.
He said the press statement was released in the hope of contributing to a better understanding of the budget for informed public discussion towards the improvement of the quality of the lives of Ghanaians.
He noted that an effective and efficient economy required a stock of goodwill, trust and acceptance, obedience to the law, as well as the presence of institutions that provided social stability and security.
He said citizens inputs into the budget process in the past, though limited, was truncated this year during the preparation of the 2009 budget.
Mr Akolgo called on the government to formalise the public input into the budget process and said the process should go beyond request for input from the public to the situation where the budget process would be publicised to enable stakeholders to participate effectively.
He also said the Right and Access to Information Bill must be passed into law to enable citizens to make informed inputs into the budget and public finance including helping to reduce corruption and mismanagement of public resources.
He said it was important for the government to make loan transactions and grants transparent and involve civil society organisations, businesses, labour groups and Parliament before such loans were contracted.
Mr Akolgo commended the government for seeking to run a transparent, lean, efficient and effective government and recommended that the country’s natural resources management be brought under the discipline of the extractive industry transparency initiative.
He also suggested that immediate steps should be taken to review and adjust the fiscal regime for the extraction of resources.
He said that would help generate revenue to reduce dependence on external loans and provide resources to invest in the productive and social sectors.