By Mama A. Touray
Marr Nyang, Executive Director of Gambia Participates disclosed at the launch of the citizens’ budget edition Gambia ranks 35 in open budget transparency between 2019 to 2021.
The launch of the citizen budget edition on Monday was organized by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.
Nyang said “Between 2019 to 2021, from 4, the ministry of finance scored 35 out of hundred which means 31 points between 2019 to 2021, in all the one hundred and twenty countries that were accessed in the open budget survey they highest transparency improvement, adding the country that scored the highest between 2019 to 2021is the Gambia and that indicating that CSO government collaboration is been good.
Commenting on the development, he expressed gratitude saying it’s a pleasure for them as a pro-fiscal organization that works on physical transparency and considering the trend of budget transparency in the Gambia from 2019 to 2021.
“The numbers are speaking for themselves. The Ministry of Finance’s performance in 2019 wasn’t that good but after the research we went to the Ministry of Finance budget director and said, look, there are opportunities for Gambia to improve the transparency,” he said.
He stated that since 2020 they have been working with the Ministry of Finance in producing the citizen by-pass of the city budget and that the ministry has been open to working with them.
For his part, Mod A. Secka, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance said every year the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs prepares and submits the national budget by the relevant public financial management laws to the National Assembly for debate and approval.
He added that the city budget is prepared to present the annual government budget in a simple and easily understood language to citizens.
“A summarized version of the budget for public understanding of government priorities and projects is important as international good practice recommends that government publish eight budget documents at various points in the budget cycle as a guide to transparency in government and key among them is the citizens budget, enacted budget and in year expenditure,” he said
Niyongabo Ephrem, Country Economist from World Bank, stated that this is a key step in terms of the budget process and that when one looks at the concept of every budget which indeed looks at how citizen opinion is included in the budget process in terms of preparation, access to information.
He added that this is a key step in terms of budget transparency and open budget which countries are making progress which also requires continuous efforts.