NGO urges FG, state governments on full budgetary disclosure

To promote accountability, Connected Development (CODE), a leading civil society orrganisation, has called on government at all levels to put budgetary allocations in the public domain to allow citizens to hold them to account.

Its director of programmes, Lucy Abagi, made this call in Abuja at the unveiling of its new identity and presentation of achievements of the organisation to mark its 10th anniversary.

Disclosing that the group has tracked over N2 billion in diverted funds, she lamented that access to information has remained a major challenge in demanding transparency from governments.

“Access to Information is a problem because governments in some states have refused to ensure that the information that citizens need to hold them accountable is in public space. So, if we want this work to keep moving forward, the government needs to open up by ensuring their budgets, implementation plans and monetary allocations are in the open space,” she said.

Abagi said that CODE’s social accountability movement, Follow The Money (FTM), has empowered 300 communities and over four million lives through various projects, campaigns and community outreaches in education, basic health and water sanitation in the past 10 years.

CODE’s Community Engagement Director, Busayo Morakinyo, said that the organisation is working to see how communities and individuals would be engaged better.