Monrovia, Liberia – Launching its nationwide Open Budget Initiative (OBI) for FY2024 and pre-budget consultations for FY2025, the Government of Liberia, via the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and her partner – Local Empowerment for Accountability and Decentralization (USAID LEAD) have started.
The activities included in the Government’s fiscal transparency and public involvement program are meant to inform people on the performance of the FY2024 Budget and seek their opinions for FY2025. The OBI consultations are meant to improve public engagement in the openness of the national budget process as well as give a forum for every citizen to grasp how the government budget is compiled, allocated, and spent. It also explores the performance and income generating power of the national budget.
The public will get comprehensive knowledge on the distribution of government finances to counties, districts, and institutions thanks to the participation of the residents. The ongoing rise in public participation in the budget process will help people to grasp how much money their districts and counties obtain from the national budget and how those funds will affect local development and the delivery of public services.
This year’s event attracted an impressive number of residents from several sectors (students, physically challenged, CSOs, business community, and so on) of the county for the launched on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, in Gbarnga, Bong County.
Local government officials, civil society leaders, students, and the public were gathered for the inaugural event to explore the need of openness and responsibility in the budget.
The government OF Liberia has expressed that it will keep being transparent and provide more chances for the general people to participate in the management of public money. To counsel her on how to be more transparent and answerable to the Liberian people, the Boakai administration also included civil society organizations in the committee.
A information sheet for public consumption has shown the first half of the year’s (January–June 2024) budgetary actions. This data sheet offers a clear picture of the government’s expectations, approved, actual and balances of revenue generating, budget allocation and expenditure. As a fundamental component of the OBI engagement for FY2024, specifics of the fact sheet explanation and reaction to questions and comments are under discussion.
According to the government of Liberia, a consultative engagement will provide outstanding ideas from the public on the several pillars of the ARREST Agenda to include health, education, climate change, energy and environment, transparency and accountability, social development, and human security in readiness for FY 2025. Groups will be formed from the cross section of participants to address the top concerns of national development.
