Let’s practice transparency and accountability with community levy” --- Okezie Kalu urges colleagues

The Co-chair of the Joint Committee on Administration, Finance and Budget/Public Account/Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research, Benjamin Okezie Kalu has urged his colleagues to champion, promote, and practice transparency and accountability in the utilization of the community levy to impact the Community citizens especially those at the lowest strata. 

According to him in the Supplementary Act, Parliament is required to regularly carry out oversight functions of the activities of Programme implementing ECOWAS Institutions and Agencies and adopt appropriate Resolutions.
According to him, oversight is an indispensable parliamentary tool that should be effectively deployed to secure the accountability of the Executive to the Parliament and the citizens in general.

The Community Parliament, he said has a critical duty to ensure that public resources are utilized responsibly and for intended purposes, by the Executive arm.   

He made this remarks at the opening of the delocalized meeting of the joint Committee on Administration, Finance and Budget |Public Accounts |Macroeconomic Policy and Economic Research of the ECOWAS Parliament, Abidjan, and Republic of Cote d’Ivoire on Monday, August 12, 2024.

It’s under the theme: ‘‘The Role of the ECOWAS Parliament in Community Budget Formulation and Monitoring’.  
Subsequently, within the Parliament’s mandate and specifically under Articles 9 (1a) and 11 of the Supplementary Act A/SA.1/12/16 Relating to the Enhancement of the Powers of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mandatory Referral of the Community Budget and Parliament’s Opinion is required. 
And therefore, the objective of the Joint Committee meeting is to enable Representatives to understand the ECOWAS Parliament’s role in the Community Budget Formulation and Monitoring, and to equip Members with the requisite knowledge and skills to ensure prudent management of community resources. 

This can only be achieved through meaningful engagements with key stakeholders, especially, the ECOWAS Commission and the Administration and Finance Committee (AFC), which is a statutory technical committee under the supervision of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers. 

The Deputy Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria noted that, budgeting is the process of preparing and overseeing a financial document that estimates revenue and expenditure for a period. For institutions like ours, budgeting is a key skill for ensuring Community institutions have the resources to execute programs, projects, and activities. 

Budgeting is not only important because it involves number-crunching, but also crucial because it requires attention to details, and making informed strategic decisions about fund allocation. The following are five reasons budgeting is important in organisations. 

•    It ensures Resource Availability: The primary function of budgeting is to ensure an organisation has enough resources to meet its goals. Through effective financial planning, one can determine which programs and activities require more resources and which areas to cut back. 

•    It can help set and report on internal goals budgeting for an upcoming period: It is not just about funds allocation; it is also about determining how much revenue is needed to achieve desired goals. Financial goals should be attainable enough that one could count on them to inform the rest of budget allocations.  The set goals inform the expenditure needed to reach them and vice versa. 

•    It helps prioritize programs and activities: A byproduct of the budgeting process is that it requires prioritizing programs and activities. When prioritizing, a key consideration is the potential of each project, how each aligns with the institution’s strategic goals, and the extent to which they could positively impact Community Citizens.

•    It can lead to financing opportunities: When deciding to provide aid to Community Institutions, investors highly value its current, past, and predicted financial performance. Providing documents for previous periods with clearly outlined - budgeted and actual spending, shows proficiency in the handling of organisation finances. 

•    It provides a Pivotal plan: A budget is principally a financial roadmap for the upcoming period; if all goes according to plan, it shows how much should be earned and spent 4 on specific items. Yet, the business and social world is anything but predictable. Circumstances outside our control can impact our revenue or cause priorities to change at a moment’s notice.