 |
| Akwa Ibom Governor Udom Emmanuel |
In an effort to promote accountability, Akwa Ibom state government has said, it will commence publishing its yearly budget to enable its citizens have easy access to it.
The Senior Special Adviser to the Governor of the state on budget, Mr Nicolas Ekarika hinted that the hearing of the 2020 budget has been completed, adding that it will take care of every facet of citizensโ needs.
Ekarika said this on Thursday in Uyo, during Policy Alert 5th annual budget forum.
He said that โcommencing from January 2020 the budget of the state will be published on the state government website and everybody will have a direct access to the budgetโ
The Governorโs aide maintained that the state has never experienced budget missing.
He revealed that the next year budget will pass through rigorous processes of town hall meetings as well as wide consultations.
Speaking on the theme; corruption, citizenโs power and the budget process, Prof. Christopher Ekong of the department of economics, University of Uyo admonished the citizens to always pay attention to the outcome and output of every budget.
Ekong also encouraged the citizens to engage in budget tracking right from inception to weed out paddling.
He lamented over government abandoned projects in the state after the money for those projects were allocated in the budget.
The economist called on โevery successive government in the state to form the hobbit of completing previous government project before initiating new ones, since government is in continuumโ.
Accordingly, the group, Policy Alert has stated that it will begin mounting pressure on Akwa Ibom state government over abandoned projects.
The group expressed that the abandoned Ibom Science Park project would have been booming like the Silicon Valley in abroad.
They hinted that they have set up a network to support community in monitoring any government established project.
