Accountability: Right to Information law under way
The session was the first step to social accountability of the budget.
ISLAMABAD:
Sub-National Governance Programme (SNG) organised a consultative session “Citizen Budget Promoting Transparency and Accountability”. Donor agency and civil society representatives, members of academia and media and government officials attended the session where speakers discussed the rationale and process behind the development of the Citizens’ Budget. The Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governments have produced simplified versions of the annual budgets for financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16 containing key information of interest and relevance to common citizens. The session was the first step to social accountability of the budget. Civil society shall now take advantage of the right to information law. “We should engage the government in a constructive manner,” said senior public financial expert Akmal Minallah commending SNG and the Punjab and KP government. Commissioner Punjab Information Commission Mukhtar Ahmad Ali described Citizen’s Budget as “a significant achievement in promoting social accountability.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21th, 2015.
Sub-National Governance Programme (SNG) organised a consultative session “Citizen Budget Promoting Transparency and Accountability”. Donor agency and civil society representatives, members of academia and media and government officials attended the session where speakers discussed the rationale and process behind the development of the Citizens’ Budget. The Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governments have produced simplified versions of the annual budgets for financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16 containing key information of interest and relevance to common citizens. The session was the first step to social accountability of the budget. Civil society shall now take advantage of the right to information law. “We should engage the government in a constructive manner,” said senior public financial expert Akmal Minallah commending SNG and the Punjab and KP government. Commissioner Punjab Information Commission Mukhtar Ahmad Ali described Citizen’s Budget as “a significant achievement in promoting social accountability.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21th, 2015.