Ghanaians urged to make inputs into 2015 budget

Ghanaians have been urged to send their contributions and inputs to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning before Friday, September 5, this year, for the drawing up the 2015 National Budget.

The 2015 budget statement is expected to be presented to Parliament in November for debate and passage in December 2014.

A statement signed by Mr Jerry Sam, Programme Director, of the International Institute for ICT Journalism, (Penplusbytes) and copied to GNA on Tuesday said the public could add their inputs easily and faster through a campaign platform www.myghanabudget.org.

The platform was launched by Penplusbytes in collaboration with Financial Accountability and Transparency Africa (FAT Africa) with support from STAR-Ghana to enable citizens send their inputs.

The release said the platform was established to enable citizens help shape Ghana’s 2015 budget following the Ministry of Finance’s earlier call soliciting inputs from recognised professional bodies, associations, civil society organisations and citizens, for ideas and contributions that may be considered during the process of formulating the budget statement.

It explained that www.myghanabudget.org was designed to facilitate public participation, provoke debate around the budget and help shape public policy.

The project also seeks to promote civil society participation at all stages of the national budget preparation and implementation thereby strengthening Ghana’s democracy and accountability expected from Government.

“Budget reading is the most visible and popular aspect in the budget cycle where the Minister of Finance presents the budget to law makers for legislation. A very important step after budget formulation is enactment where key stakeholders including civil society groups and citizens have a great potential of shaping the budget through provision of input”.

FAT-Africa is a civil society organization and a think tank that advocates and promotes good financial governance with the aim of creating an enabling climate to nurture a culture of efficient public sector and financial management principles in Africa, while Penplusbytes established in 2001 seeks to empower the media through the use of ICTs to advance the course of journalism in the areas of governance and accountability, new media and innovations and oil, gas and mining.

STAR-Ghana on the other hand is a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism (Funded by DFID, DANIDA, EU and USAID) to increase the influence of civil society and Parliament in the governance of public goods and service delivery, with the ultimate goal of improving the accountability and responsiveness of Ghana’s government, traditional authorities and the private sector.

Interested persons can also send their contributions directly to the Director of Budget, ROOM 417, Ministry of Finance, or Email: bdu@mofep.gov.gh or the Public Relations Office, Ministry of Finance.