The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has launched the third edition of the citizens’ budget, which translates the 2016 national budget into seven local languages to aid easy understanding by the citizens.
Mr. Seth Terkper, the Minister of Finance, who launched the Citizens’ Budget at a durbar of chiefs and people at Dodowa in the Shai Osudoku District, said the production of the document was part of government’s efforts to promote transparency and accountability by making budget information more accessible.
He said the document, which summarises the 2016 Budget and Economic Statement in the local languages of Asante Twi, Ga, Dangme, Dagbani, Gonja, Nzema and Ewe, was to make the usually technical and bulky document to be understood by a large segment of the Ghanaian population as much as possible.
“We hope that this will give opportunity to the good people of Ghana to exercise their democratic rights by demanding accountability and prudent management of state resources,” he stated, adding that the document will also help to enhance government-citizen dialogue on national policy and plans, as well as reflecting the priority and needs of the people.
Mr. Terkper said the Citizens’ budget had been very successful and popular with many district assemblies requesting copies of the document.
He commended the Ghana Institute of Languages for their role in translating the budget into the different languages, adding that, the plan was to translate it into many more languages, depending on the capability of the Institute and availability of resources.
This, he said, addressed the challenge of accuracy and the need for brevity while communicating the key themes.
He said the Ministry would embark on outreaches after the launch to disseminate the Citizens budget, which he noted would help to make them understand government’s revenue sources and expenditures and thus positively impact revenue mobilisation.
Mr. Puja Noshadi, Senior Advisor at the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), said the documents were developed under the Good Financial Governance Programme financed by the German government.
He said the German government had for over a decade supported the Ghanaian government in its quest to achieve its development objectives through strengthening of public financial systems.
He noted that the GIZ was happy to partner government in this regard since the strengthening of public financial systems had a direct bearing on development on education, healthcare and other important systems.
“We’re also very happy the Ministry of Finance is communicating the main priorities of the Government of Ghana to the Ghanaian citizens and that it has therefore compiled the Citizens’ Budget three years in a row”.
Mr. Noshadi said the GIZ supported the initiative because the Citizens Budget was an important and effective tool to strengthen the relation and social contract between citizens and the government.
