Residents of Ho to join in preparing Assembly budget

Mr. Emmanuel Apawudza, Principal Budget Analyst at the Ho Municipal Assembly, has urged residents to join in the preparation of the Assembly’s composite budget, which begins in June every year and ends in January of the following year.

He was hopeful that they would be active in the preparation of the Assembly’s next budget which will begin from June 2015.

“Know your budget and shine your eyes to ensure that it reflects your inputs,” he said emphasizing the importance of residents being better informed and being able to track the implementation of the budget.

Mr. Apawudza was speaking on “Participatory Budgeting” at a Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) Forum in Ho, organised by Community Development Concern (CDC) in collaboration with the Municipal Assembly.

Mr. Apawudza urged residents of the Municipality to seek clarifications from technical personnel in the Assembly on issues rather than resort to allegations based on misinformation and speculation.

He said by getting involved in the budgeting processes, residents would become owners of the budget and be willing to pay their levies and rates to finance it.

They would also exercise the authority to hold bureaucrats at the Assembly to account and also monitor the execution of projects to ensure value for money.

He took participants made up of representatives of a cross section of civil society groups, private and public institutions through the five processes of composite budgeting.

SPEFA is a component of the Local Government Capacity Support Project, which aims at improving citizens’ perception of urban management and increases their participation in development decision-making with metropolitan and municipal assemblies.

Participants asked the Assembly to build the capacity of Assembly members to be able to scrutinize its budgets. They also asked the Assembly to improve the flow of information between it and the public and initiate the building of a new and befitting office from internally generated funds.

Representatives of transport unions said services provided by the Assembly to the unions do not reflect the quantum of revenue being generated from them.

The Department of Gender asked to be co-opted into the Assembly’s budgeting processes to ensure that the needs of women and children are reflected in the budgets.

Responding to some of the issues, the Municipal Chief Executive, Mrs. Fafa Adinyra hinted that the Assembly plans to construct two lorry stations in the municipality next year to ease congestion at the main lorry station.

She said a master drainage plan has been approved for the Ho municipality and that she would follow-up to ensure its execution.