A two-day budget sum
mit organised by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) has ended in Yenagoa with participants urging the Bayelsa State government to adopt international best practices in its budgeting.
Speaking at the end of the summit, the Bayelsa Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Chief Ambrose Akierite, said it would strengthen the state’s budgeting process.
Akierite also said that the knowledge acquired from the summit in budgeting would help the bureaucrats to achieve the state’s development plans.
He said the state government was committed to results-based budget as a tool for ensuring transparency, accountability and value in projects financed with public funds.
According to him, the recommendations from the summit would be presented to the executive council for further consideration and implementation.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Bayelsa Non-Governmental Organisations Forum, Mr Torki Dauseye,  said the summit offered its members the opportunity to appreciate government’s budgetary processes.
Dauseye said that civil society organisations were ready to collaborate with the government in the monitoring and evaluation of its projects to achieve the desired objectives.
“We are willing to share our expertise with the state government in areas like needs assessment to find out what the priorities of the people are so that the government will pay attention to the real needs of the people.
“In some instances, communities have projects sited within their domain that do not have impact on their lives, so this concept of participatory budgeting which involves the citizens is commendable,” he said.
The Country Director of NDI, said the Bayelsa government had expressed the political will to run an open administration and sought the assistance of the U.S. government on capacity building for the executive and legislative arms of the government.
He said the Bayelsa government and U.S. government had signed a memorandum of understanding currently implemented by the NDI.