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Civil society participation must for pro-people budgeting: Punjab Peoples Budget Conference, Pakistan Speakers at peoples Budget Conference say Punjab Budget 2009-10 for underdeveloped areas is under utilized.
LAHORE: involvement of parliamentarians and the civil society/community groups in budget making process right from its initiation to approval is imperative for pro-people budgeting. The true process of development can not be sustainable until the decisions regarding economic and budget making processes are made inclusive and all the stakeholders play their due role in holding the government accountable.
These views were expressed by speakers at Punjab Peoples Budget Conference, organized by Actionaid Pakistan here at local Hotel on Wednesday (Nov 25)
The conference was attended by parliamentarians, representatives of political parties, trade unions, home-based women workers, landless peasants, and minorities, social and political activists from across the Punjab province.
Speaking on the occasion PPP MPA Amana Bhuttar said Punjab government did not give any consideration to the budget related recommendation made by women parliamentarians. She said budget making is a technical job and difficult task to understand and interpret. Many MPS are unable to grasp the nitty gritty and technical language of the budget. They are given copies of heavy budget books to review them within in short period of only two days. She urged the need for training of MPs specially women parliamentarians on understanding analyzing budget. She said allocation of funds for certain sectors is important but more important is effective utilization of allocated funds.
PML-Q member Punjab assembly, Amana Ulfat crticising the PML-N government said it has not capacity to utilize the allocated funds as Rs 10 billion of social sector remained unspent in the last year budget of 2008-09. She said the Punjab government had not allocated a single penny for the development and welfare of the women.
While presenting the analysis of Punjab budget, Adam Malik of ActionAid-Pakistan there was a general impression that budget was matter to be discussed in the month of June however the budget preparation, approval and implementation are different stages of budget and are equally important to be looked in according to budget cycle in Pakistan at local, provincial or federal level
There is need to extensively engage civil society groups, trade unions, professional forums and other peoples forum in a consultative process regarding all stages of Budget that include preparation, approval and implementation and even audit of previous years.
Parliamentary forums should assert their active role in supervising the the budget preparation process at different departments. especially standing committees should discuss the sectoral budgets by different departments before submitting to the Finance Department in January.
The constant trend is noticed for under utilization of development budget and over spending of administrative and other non-development expenses. During last fiscal year of 2008 - 2009 one-third of education, 50% of already low allocated environment budget, about 50% regional planning budget aiming to uplift South Punjab could not be utitlized. the trend of under utilization of the Budget in rural and underdeveloped areas is more high compare to the rest of Punjab.
Participating organizations across Punjab, including Women Workers Help Line , Lahore, Jag welfare Movement of Rahimyar Khan, Pakistan welfare Society of layyah, , Hirrak Development Organization of Kot Addu, presented peoples analysis of budgets of their relevant districts.
Presenting analysis of the District Lahore Budget 2008-09, Bushra Khaliq said the funds of school management committees SMCS are cut from Rs. 50,000 to 25000. It was planned to open 10 new mother-child health care centers but not a single center open in the current financial year. Same is the situation with BHU as no basic health center is upgraded.
Those who spoke on the occasion included Ms. Hina Sheikh of SAHI, Dr.Bela Raza Jamil of Idara Taleem –O-Aghai, Salman Abid of Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) , Zahid Islam, trade unionist, Zulfiqar Ali of Hirrak Development Centre, Khalid Masood of Jaag Welfare Movement, Kirdar Sidiqui of Awam Dost Foundation and Habib Joya of Pakistan Wefare Society.
-Action Aid International Pakistan |
