BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – Civil society organizations have created significant awareness on the use of County and Social Development Funds, drawing significant attention in pushing for the accountability of those funds. However, in the process, they have paid less attention to public funds allocated in other areas.

This is the view held by Carolyn Myers Zoduah, the coordinator of the Non-State Actors Secretariat at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. To enhance the capacity of civil society organizations to hold the government more accountable in the management of public funds, Zoduah said the government launched the Non-State Actors Integrated Public Financial Management Reform Project in 2012.

According to Zoduah, the decision was made because of “the significant role civil society plays and their contribution towards the achievement of [the] government’s development agenda.”

The organization just concluded a public financial management training for civil society organizations in Buchanan. The three-day training brought together representatives of civil society organizations from Grand Bassa, River Cess, Bomi, Cape Mount, and Gbarpolu.

Zoduah said the training is being supported by the African Development Bank and those trained will be prioritized when funding is available to help enhance their work to monitor the usage of public finance. In the future, other organizations in other parts of the country are also expected to benefit.

She called for civil society organizations to follow up on funds allocated to the various ministries, agencies, and commissions of government to ensure they are used for the intended projects.

“There are other areas like procurement, following up on the Legislative Support Projects, looking at the GAC [General Auditing Commission], how to engage the GAC so that when audits come out, [civil society organizations] can follow up on those audits so that recommendations can be implemented,” she added.

She also said there is a need for civil society organizations to focus on the Liberia Revenue Authority’s domestic resource mobilization and how policies that affect local resource generation improve the lives of women and children.

During the course of the financial management training, the facilitators rolled out the basic concept and principles of financial management and also linked the budget to service delivery, the budget process, and the approaches to budget analysis, government expenditure, and budget performance monitoring indicators.

The executive director of Women Care Initiative, Janet O. Paye, who participated in the training, thanked the Non-State Actors Secretariat for the “eye-opening” experience.

She called on the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to carry on the training quarterly to enhance the capacity of civil society organizations to more effectively carry out a monitoring role.

Another participant who represented the United Youth for Peace, Daniel Quinneh, thanked the organizers. He said civil society organizations across the country are willing to monitor the government to ensure that public finances are used properly, however, they need to be trained and financially empowered.

He said the training is a dream come through for organizations like his that have been in search for capacity building to effectively carry out their duties.

Featured photo by Sampson David