The
accountant general, Lawrence Ssemakula (left) and the coordinator of
Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group, Julius Mukunda addressing
participants during a meeting at the ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Kampala. Photo by Francis Emorut
By Francis Emorut
The Accountant General, Lawrence Semakula has cautioned
civil society organizations against criticizing government without
offering alternative measures.
Ssemakula was addressing participants during a meeting with members
of Civil Society Advocacy Budget Group (CSBAG) and officials of the
accountability sector.
“You should not only criticise government but offer constructive
proposals or alternatives on how to improve budget credibility,
execution and give feedback to inform policy and decision makers,” he
said.
The meeting took place at the conference hall of the ministry of foreign affairs in Kampala.
Ssemakula asked the civil society group to give feedback on corruption tendencies so that government can take action.
“Civil society organizations have central roles to play in
establishing better accountability and in addressing corruption in the
community: they can provide direct links with the users and
beneficiaries of government programmes and monitoring public expenditure
and can also advocate and give feedback on the effectiveness of
accountability systems for action,” Ssemakula said.
He stressed the need to strengthen working relations between the
accountability sector and the civil society group in demanding
accountability from service providers.
The meeting was called to ensure that the input of citizens about
budget process is included as consultations on the national budget
framework paper are on-going.
The Accountant General welcomed the initiative of CSBAG and said
public engagement is important in budget process to ensure transparency
and promoting social accountability.
“Accountability sector working group recognises the importance of
public engagement in budgeting, strengthens transparency and openness of
public budgets and helps to promote social accountability that enables
citizens to become more engaged and in the process learn more about the
budget and fiscal policy concerns,” he said.
Julius Mukunda the coordinator of CSBAG assured the accountant
general that the budget advocacy group acts as a watch dog on how
government’s money is spent in providing service delivery to the
citizenry.
Mukunda informed the officials in the accountant general office
that civil society group has budget track mechanism up to the grassroots
level and therefore, can monitor and evaluate government programmes.
He said the grassroots approach to budget monitoring and service
delivery tracking is achieved through the village budget clubs and
village parliaments.
He also pointed out that the group engages Parliament and ministry
of finance in a bid to influence budget decisions in Uganda through
provision of alternative budget proposals on an annual basis.
Godfrey Ssemugooma the commissioner in AG office said they are
committed in prevention, detection and elimination of corruption as far
as government programmes are concerned
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