Group urges diligence in 2017 budget implementation in Anambra

A non-governmental organisation(NGO), Civil Rights Concern has advised the Anambra State House of Assembly to be more proactive in its primary responsibilities of lawmaking, oversight function and ensure that adequate representation were carried out diligently to the benefit of their constituents.

The Rights group, which is saddled with the responsibility to monitor and evaluate the level of impact of government’s policies and programmes on the citizens said there was a huge gap between the government and her policies to the citizens of the state.

It, therefore, urged lawmakers to ensure effective monitoring of the 2017 budget to enable it benefit the people.

Citing the 2015 budget implementation since the implementation framework of the current budget (2016) was not available, its Coordinator, Okey Onyeka, said the budget did not impact on the living standard of the people especially on Health and Agriculture.

He noted that the 2015 budget performance in the health sector, which was about 10.5 per cent showed that a number of projects started in respect of renovation of general hospitals and Primary Health Centers (PHC) did not attack the lack of availability and accessibility to health facilities.

He, however, advised the state government to bridge the gaps in the budget and the actual implementation, which according to him, had exposed many people in the state to high vulnerability and poverty, especially the farmers in the rural areas.

“The State Government should be proactive in the allocation and implementation of greater percentage of her budget to Health sector and Agriculture, as both were crucial to the survival of people in the society. Virtually all the previous years’ budgets have failed in these aspects,” he said.

He urged the Anambra State lawmakers to ensure that what happened in the previous years in budgetary allocation and implementation did not repeat itself in 2017 budget, recently presented by Governor Willie of Obiano to the House.