By Ibrahim Karim Bangura (Tanko)

The Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), the principal civil society on financial planning in the country, has launched its 2023 Budget Survey Report.

The launching happened on Wednesday May 29th at the Atlantic Hotel in Lumley, Freetown and the program attracted several personalities from all walks of life.

BAN says it has entered into strong partnership with the media, ministries department and agencies (MDAs) and the central government to educate and inform citizens on budget spending in any government financial interventions.

In his speech, Andrew Lavalie, director of Institute of Governance Reform (IGR) who also doubles as the moderator at the program, said the driving motivation for the BSR’s launching among other things was to enhance transparency and accountability on annual budgets of government through creating positive impact and efficiency on people.

He labeled the report launch as a noteworthy milestone being attained and that they are trying for an extension of the budget’s voyage towards meeting merit. He said the edge would reduce burden and faults while promoting transparency and accountability, thus giving convenience and satisfaction to citizenry while aiming to seeing that BAN always leads by example.

In his presentation, Abu Bakarr Kamara, Coordinator of Budget Advocacy Network-Sierra Leone, said BSR’s launching was a move to continue to carry out the re-building strengths of the budget allocations to MDAs through parliament.

“Sierra Leone is 5% below the pass mark of (60%).”

“To ensure adequate budget information disclosure, Sierra Leone government must be doing regularly pre-budget statements posted online at least one month before submitting the government executive’s budget proposal to parliament and the mid-year review three month after the end of the six months,” he said.

He added that citizen’s participation in the budget process fell to 20% in 2023 31% in 2021.

According to the International Budget Partnership, more citizens of about 70% participated in the budget formulation in 2021 than in 2023 (33%), adding that there was 17% of citizens’ participation in the budget execution stage, and 33% selected issues for the Audit Service Sierra Leone to examine.

Sierra Leone’s audit oversight score climbed to 78% in 2023 from 72% in 2021, while legislative oversight fell by 3 point from (33%) in 2021 to (30%) in 2023.

He added that Sierra Leone improves on its 2023 Open Budget Survey Index Score as the country’s transparency mark rose by 10 points above the global average of (45%) with 65% in 2021 to 55% in 2023. The progress also means that Sierra Leone climbed 17 points from 64th in 2021 to 47th in 2023 out of 125 countries.

The report says this ranks the country higher than Liberia which has (52%), Ghana (46%), Gambia (36%), Sao Tome and Principe (32%), Nigeria (31%), and Equatorial Guinea (4%).

He said publication of citizen’s budget is a must to ensure credible and vital information to the public.

UNICEF representative, Alimamy Kargbo, said implementation and civic media education are key in national budget preparation and execution, and a focus on revenue generation, revenue security should be paramount.

He said it is therefore necessary to monitor the phases of annual budgets.

And government must see that there is coordination while working to ensure compliance. He also encouraged BAN to work with other line ministries, noting that the effort is very laudable at the moment.

Ibrahim Jimissa, Parliamentary Budget Officer, described the survey launching as very important as he emphasized that some areas of recommendations have been addressed though he cited there are challenges.

He said moving along with digital budget platforms is highly recommended by institutions like Parliament, citing that lawmakers worldwide are implementing digitalized concepts and approaches to educate citizens regarding annual budget progress.

He said the occasion was critically important while appreciating the support and team work of BAN in the area of advocacy and awareness raising over the years by holding government appointees to task.

He assured their partner that they are ready and ever so willing to sort out any challenges thus promising to show up from time to time.

“We believe in the work of BAN; they have the ability to promote financial inclusion as there will be invaluable insights for citizens to trust in government’s annual budgets.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Auditor General, Audit Service Sierra Leone, Morie Lansana, said the launching of the 2023 Budget Report podium was a remarkable accomplishment though there are loopholes on issues of transparency and accountability.

“The theme for today’s experience is Leveraging on Budget Survey, and our role and responsibility is to produce annual report on funds given to all MDAs, and the report is always tabled in parliament for debate.’

On efficiency and sustainable service delivery aspect, it was captioned as “Revenue Generation for Sustainable Development,” he told attendees.

During his keynote address, Country Representative International Monitory Fun, Wayne Mitchell, said with the additional work and acceptance of BAN over the years, it has created more accountability in the financial sector in Sierra Leone.

“It has enhanced partnership between the public and private sector; the pioneering collaboration is a step in the right course,” he said.

He noted that the completion of a strategic plan of the IMF equally captures all of such pivotal aspirations, thus enhancing professional and smooth efficiency which are also some of the other virtues of the collaboration to improve the standards of living of people in a post war country like Sierra Leone.